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THE WORKS OF 

Theodore Roosevelt 

IN FOURTEEN \ OLL'MES 

Illustrated 

American Ideals 

WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BV 
GEN. FRANCIS \INTON GREENE 

Administration— Civil Service 




l£xecutive Cdition 

PUBLISHED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE 
PRESIDENT THROUGH SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT 
WITH THE CENTURY CO., MESSRS. CHARLES 
SCRIBNER'S SO.NS, AND G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



THE CO-OPERATIVE PUBLICATION SOCIETY 

XEW YORK AND LONDON 



/ qo-'? 






\ 

Copyright 1889, 1894, 1896 
By G. p. PUTNAM'S SONS 



This edition is published under arrangement with 
G. P. Putnam's Sons, of New Yorl£ and London. 



SOUROB UNKNOWTT 

FEB 1 9 1945 



17 



51 
63 
78 



CONTENTS 

AMERICAN IDEALS 
I._-American Ideals ..•••• _ _ 3^ 

n.^TRUE AMEKICAKISM • • ' . '^^^ poLITlCS 

,,,„,„ Virtues and Practica 

TV -THE COLLEGE GRADUATE ^ ^^ 

^ ^TATE LEGISLATION • ■ • " 
V.-PHASES OP STATE ^^^^ ^,, 

VI.-MACHIKE POLITICS IN N^W ^^^^^^^^ ^^ 

VII.-THE VICE-PRKSIDENCV AND THE _ _ ^^^ 

1896 ••••■■■ 

,pM.msTaATioK-civa se.v.ce 

rr::: rn.. o„. poo.. b.o™.. . ^. 

TV -THE MONROE DOCTRINE . • • • 

1^- „„,.,.>. Maxim • • • • 



[V iHt/ mx^'--'- . iiuo 

V -WASHINGTON'S FORGOTTEN MAXIM. ' ' ' ^^^ 

V1.-NATIONAL LIEE AND CHARACTER • ■ • " ^^^ 

VII -SOCIAL EVOLUTION . " ' " ' „ ^^ . . . 347 

^ Ptvilization and Decay 
VIII -The Law op Civiliz. 



^ 



I 



I 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

THE publishers of Theodore Roosevelt's books 
have decided to publish a popular edition of 
them during the Presidential campaign, and have 
asked me to write a few w^ords of introduction. 
Few names are more widely known at the present 
moment than that of Theodore Roosevelt, so that 
in one sense any introduction is superfluous. But 
in this sense he is known chiefly as the "Rough 
Rider" of the Santiago campaign ; whereas those 
who read these books will see that his experience 
as a volunteer officer in the war with Spain is only 
one incident in a life which has been singularly 
varied in thought and accomplishment and useful 
in many fields. 

Roosevelt was born in New York City, October 
2^, 1858. On his father's side he is descended from 
a Dutch emigrant of the seventeenth century, and 
the intermediate generations have been prudent, 
hard-working, successful merchants, prominent at 
all times in the commercial and social life of New 
York. His father's mother was from Pennsyl- 
vania, of Irish stock. His own mother was from 

Georgia, a daughter of James Dunwoodie Bullock, 
I , Vol. I. 



2 Biographical Sketch 

whose family was of Scotch and Huguenot origin, 
and had been prominent in pubhc Hfe in the South. 
During his childhood, Roosevelt was in such bad 
health that it was doubtful if he would ever grow 
to manhood, and his robust strength and extraor- 
dinary capacity for physical endurance were not ac- 
quired until after his outdoor life in the West. He 
was educated at private schools in New York City, 
whence he went to Harvard University in 1876, 
graduating in the usual course in 1880. His tastes 
were for literary work, but the very year after 
leaving college he was elected to the Legislature 
as a representative of one of the City Assembly 
districts ; and in the same fashion that has since 
characterized him, he plunged at once into the thick 
of the fight as an ardent reformer, particularly with 
reference to legislation affecting New York City. 
His youth and lack of experience were more than 
counterbalanced by his earnestness and aggressive 
energy, so that he speedily became a power which 
had to be recognized. He was the leader of his 
party while it was in the minority, and when it 
was in the majority he was Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Cities. He served three terms in the 
Legislature, and during that time introduced and 
carried through more important city legislation than 
was ever brought about by any one Assemblyman. 
It was all directed by one central purpose, namely, 
to put an end to boards and commissions with their 
opportunities for "trades" and "deals," to restrict 
the powers of the Board of Aldermen, who were 



Biographical Sketch 3 

notoriously corrupt, and to concentrate responsi- 
bility in the Mayor and single heads of departments, 
who could be held accountable; in other words, to 
effect the transformation from what was suitable 
for town-meeting government in New England or 
New Holland one or two centuries ago to what was 
required for the complicated cosmopolitan metropo- 
lis of the nineteenth century. 

While in the Legislature he still found time for 
literary work, and, in 1882, wrote The Naval War 
of 1812, which told the story of our glorious suc- 
cesses on the sea; it was written at a period when 
our merchant marine was in decadence, our navy at 
its lowest ebb, and public interest in the subject al- 
most wholly lost. It was not without its effect on 
the rebuilding of the navy which began two years 
later, which fortunately for us had already reached 
such a splendid development before 1898, and which 
is still in progress. 

In 1884, severe domestic affliction and ill-health 
caused Roosevelt to abandon his work in New York 
and go to Wyoming. He invested a considerable 
part of what he inherited from his father in a cattle 
ranch, and intended and expected to remain in the 
West for many years. The wild, outdoor life fas- 
cinated him, and it brought him health and strength; 
in spite of defective eyesight he became a good shot, 
and was particularly fond of hunting big game — 
where the other fellow had an even chance ; and the 
peculiar characteristics of the cowboy, since called 
cow-puncher, appealed alike to his sense of humor 



4 Biographical Sketch 

and his love of fair play. After he returned to live 
in the East, his fondness for hunting took him to 
the plains or mountains for his vacation every year; 
and his hunting experiences are charmingly de- 
scribed in two volumes, Hunting Trip's of a Ranch- 
man (1885) and The Wilderness Hunter (1893). 
Senator Wolcott, in his speech notifying Roosevelt 
of his nomination for the Vice-Presidency, playfully 
referred to these hunting stories with the remark 
that "now that you are our candidate they will all 
be believed"; but any one who enjoys or admires 
manly sport — such as requires courage, endurance, 
hardship, and a contest with animals which are su- 
perior to man in strength or speed — will take the 
stories on faith, regardless of political belief. 

Cattle raising did not prove financially success- 
ful, though Roosevelt kept his ranch until 1896. 
He returned to New York in 1886, married again, 
and once more plunged into political life. A Mayor 
of New York was to be elected that year. Abram 
S. Hewitt had received the nomination from Tam- 
many Hall and other Democrats; Henry George 
was the candidate of the Socialists ; the Republican 
party decided to put forward a candidate, and se- 
lected Roosevelt. There was but little chance of his 
election, but he made a most energetic canvass, 
speaking in three or four places every night during 
the latter part of the campaign. Hewitt was elected, 
George being second, and Roosevelt third, with a 
vote of about 60,000 out of a total of 220,000. 

The next three years were devoted almost wholly 



Biographical Sketch 5 

to literary and historical work. The- upbuilding 
of the great West is one of the great world move- 
ments, in some respects the most important fact of 
the century now closing. Roosevelt began writing 
the story of it in 1886, under the title of The Win- 
ning of the West; the first two volumes appearing 
in 1889, the third in 1894, and the fourth in 1896. 
Each volume describes a distinct period and is com- 
plete in itself. The last carried the story through 
the Louisiana Purchase. The history has been in- 
terrupted by the Spanish War and the engrossing 
duties of the office of Governor of New York; but 
it is hoped that the leisure hours of a Vice-President 
and the facilities of the libraries in Washington will 
afford the time and opportunity for its completion. 
Readers of the four volumes already published will 
understand the reasons why Roosevelt has such an 
extraordinary hold upon the sentiment and sym- 
pathy of the Western people. They will see that, 
although born and bred in the great city of the East, 
he realizes that the bone and sinew of this country, 
its strength and the sources of its wealth, are in the 
wide valley between the Alleghanies and the Rocky 
Mountains. Its origin and grow^th have been stud- 
ied by him in every detail; he has participated 
enough in its life thoroughly to understand it, and 
he is in close touch and accord with its aspirations 
for the future. 

In 1889, Roosevelt was appointed by President 
Harrison a member of the Civil Service Commis- 
sion at Washington and soon became its president, 



6 Biographical Sketch 

retaining that office until the spring of 1895. A 
thorough behever in the principle of merit instead 
of favor in selecting and promoting appointees for 
the thousands of minor offices in the public service, 
he entered with his usual combativeness upon the 
task of enforcing the law for carrying this principle 
into effect. For six years, under his guidance, 
this was a fighting commission, not hesitating to 
grapple with any Cabinet officer or member of 
Congress, irrespective of their party affiliations, who 
tried to nullify or repeal the law. The result was 
the extension of the Civil Service rules to more than 
50,000 government employees who were not pro- 
tected by them in 1889. 

In 1894 there was a union of all parties in New 
York City who were opposed to Tammany Hall, 
and W. L. Strong was elected Mayor. He invited 
Roosevelt to join his administration as head of one 
of the departments; first, as head of the Street- 
Cleaning Department, which he declined for lack 
of special knowledge; and second, as head of the 
Police Department, which he accepted. Some of his 
friends in Washington urged him not to accept the 
place on the ground that it was beneath his dignity ; 
others urged him with even more vehemence to 
accept it, partly because of the good work he could 
do for New York in putting this department on an 
honest basis, and partly because of the opportunity 
it would afford him of getting on the firing-line in 
the contest for good government in cities. He held 
this office for two years, and though subjected to 



Biographical Sketch 7 

much criticism from certain quarters for enforcing 
the Hquor-Hcense law, yet it can be said, in a word, 
that during his administration he placed the depart- 
ment on a thoroughly efficient basis, broke up the 
organized system of blackmail which had hitherto 
prevailed in the department, and gained the affec- 
tionate admiration of the members of the force to 
an extent which has never been equaled by any 
Police Commissioner before or since. 

During the three years from 1894 to 1897 he 
wrote the greater part of the essays on political sub- 
jects which are printed in the volumes of American 
Ideals. In these will be found his whole theory of 
politics, based on honesty, courage, never-ending 
hard work, and fair play ; and coupled with these a 
certain measure of expediency which without sac- 
rificing principle strives to get things done, and to 
accept the second best if what he considers the first 
best Is not attainable ; realizing that in a government 
of universal suffrage many minds must be con- 
sulted and a majority of them brought to the same 
conclusion before anything can be accomplished. 

When President McKinley took office in 1897, 
he offered Roosevelt the position of Assistant Secre- 
tary of the Navy, and it was promptly accepted. 
He had been only a few months in office before he 
reached certain conclusions, to wit : that a war with 
Spain was inevitable, that it was desirable, and 
that he should take an active part in it. He did 
everything that lay in his power during the nine 
months preceding April, 1898, to see that the Navy 



8 Biographical Sketch 

was prepared for the struggle, and how well he suc- 
ceeded the officers of Dewey's and Sampson's fleets 
and the Bureau Chiefs in the Navy Department are 
always abundantly able and willing to testify to. 
As war drew near he began to make his plans for 
his own part in it. He at first endeavored to ob- 
tain a commission in one of the National Guard regi- 
ments in New York which he felt sure would volun- 
teer for the war, but this for various reasons being 
riot practicable, he determined to raise a regiment 
of volunteer cavalry in the West. His friends in 
Washington did everything to dissuade him from 
this project : his wife was ill, his little children were 
dependent on him, and it was urged that he could 
render far more valuable service in the Navy De- 
partment than in the field. But his purpose was in- 
flexible. On account of his lack of experience in 
technical military details he asked his friend, Dr. 
Leonard Wood, an army surgeon who had had 
much experience in Indian fighting in Arizona, to 
take the position of Colonel, he taking that of Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel. He persuaded the President to au- 
thorize the raising of the ist U. S. Volunteer Cav- 
alry on this basis. In about thirty days from the 
issuing of this authority the regiment was recruited, 
uniformed, drilled, armed, equipped, and transported 
to Tampa, Florida, ready for duty. The story of 
the Rough Riders is a household word from Maine 
to Arizona and from Oregon to Florida. As told 
by Roosevelt himself, it has been read by millions 
of readers. It is the most picturesque story in our 



Biographical Sketch 9 

military annals. In the first skirmish, after land- 
ing on Cuban soil, Wood was promoted to the rank 
of Brigadier-General, and Roosevelt was left in 
command of the regiment. It owed its origin to 
him, and he was associated with it from start to 
finish. 

In September, 1898. the Republican State Con- 
vention met to nominate a candidate for Governor 
of New York. Roosevelt was then with his regi- 
ment at Montauk Point, about to be mustered out of 
service. He was nominated, and at once entered 
upon a vigorous campaign. The party was then 
suffering from criticism on account of its alleged 
mismanagement of the canals, and in the opinion 
of the best judges any other candidate would have 
been defeated. Roosevelt was elected by about 
20,000 majority. 

His election was doubtless due to his services 
in the war with Spain, but these contributed little 
or nothing to his qualifications for the office. These 
were found in his experience in the State Legisla- 
ture, in the Civil Service Commission, the Police 
Department, and the Navy Department, an experi- 
ence which had given him an intimate knowledge 
of the practical working of municipal. State, and 
national Governments ; and, above all, to his fearless 
honesty and tireless energy in devotion to sound 
principles of administration. During his two years of 
office, as Governor, he has set a standard which the 
people of New York will not soon allow to be low- 
ered. He has put through a first-class Civil Service 



lo Biographical Sketch 

law, he has framed and carried through legislation 
in regard to the difficult question of taxation, based 
on a new prinicple which is perfectly equitable, is 
particularly suited to modern conditions, and when 
modified in details to such extent as experience shall 
demonstrate to be necessary will be accepted by all ; 
he has honestly and economically administered the 
canals, and has caused the canal qiiestion to be care- 
fully studied so as to bring out all the essential facts 
upon which its solution must be based ; he has reso- 
lutely refused to appoint any unfit man to office, 
although usually ready to accept a suitable man when 
recommended by the Republican organization, which 
includes the greater part of the voters in the party ; 
he has appointed commissions to study the educa- 
tional system, the tenement-house question, and a 
revision of the Charter of the great City of New 
York. His appointees, from top to bottom, have 
been of the very highest type; from the foundation 
of the State there have been no higher. 

Many of his measures are in a half-finished con- 
dition. The Republicans of New York would, be- 
yond question, have renominated and re-elected him 
to carry them to completion. But at this stage the 
Republicans of the United States with singular una- 
nimity have called him away from New York, 
against his personal wishes and judgment, to take 
part in national affairs and to aid President McKin- 
ley in carrying out those policies which, during the 
last four years, have brought such prosperity at 
home and such greatness abroad. He has yielded 



Biographical Sketch ii 

his judgment to theirs, and cheerfully accepted the 
call. 

He has six children — Alice Lee, Theodore, Ker- 
mit, Ethel Carow, Archibald Bullock, and Quentin. 
His home is at Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, Long 
Island. 

In these pages the people of this land can read 
the thoughts that have been spun out by his brain 
during the last eighteen years, and can see what 
manner of man he is. They believe him to be hon- 
est, fearless, straightforward, a tireless worker, ex- 
perienced in the administration of city, State, and 
national affairs, a careful student and writer of his 
country's history, an American in every fibre, a man 
who holds his life at his country's service whenever 
a war is on during his lifetime. In reading these 
books their belief in him will be justified and con- 
firmed. 

Francis V. Greene 
New York, July i6, igoo. 



TO 

HENRY CABOT LODGE 



October, iSgy 



PRE FAC E 

IT is not difficult to be virtuous in a clois- 
tered and negative way. Neither is it 
difficult to succeed, after a fashion, in active 
life, if one is content to disregard the consid- 
erations which bind honorable and upright 
men. But it is by no means easy to combine 
honesty and efficiency; and yet it is absolutely 
necessary, in order to do any work really 
worth doing. It is not hard, while sitting in 
one's study, to devise admirable plans for the 
betterment of politics and of social condi- 
tions; but in practice it too often proves very 
hard to make any such plan work at all, no 
matter how imperfectly. Yet the efifort must 
continually be made, under penalty of con- 
stant retrogression in our political life. 

No one quality or one virtue is enough to 
ensure success; vigor, honesty, common-sense, 
— all are needed. The practical man is mere- 
ly rendered more noxious by his practical 
ability if he employs it wrongly, whether from 

(15) 



i6 Preface 

ignorance or from lack of morality; while the 
doctrinaire, the man of theories, whether writ- 
ten or spoken, is useless if he can not also act. 

These essays are written on behalf of the 
many men who do take an actual part in try- 
ing practically to bring about the conditions 
for which we somewhat vaguely hope; on be- 
half of the under-officers in that army which, 
with much stumbling, halting, and slipping, 
many mistakes and shortcomings, and many 
painful failures, does, nevertheless, through 
weary strife, accomplish something toward 
raising the standard of public life. 

We feel that the doer is better than the 
critic and that the man who strives stands far 
above the man who stands aloof, whether he 
thus stands aloof because of pessimism or be- 
cause of sheer weakness. To borrow a simile 
from the football field, we believe that men 
must play fair, but that there must be no shirk- 
ing, . and that success can only come to the 
player who "hits the line hard." 

Theodore Roosevelt 

Sagamore Hill, 
October, iSgi 



AMERICAN IDEALS* 

IN his noteworthy book on "National Life and 
Character," Mr. Pearson says: "The country- 
men of Chatham and Welhngton, of Washington 
and Lincoln, in short the citizens of every historic 
state, are richer by great deeds that have formed 
the national character, by winged words that have 
passed into current speech, by the examples of lives 
and labors consecrated to the service of the com- 
monwealth." In other words, every great nation 
owes to the men whose lives have formed part of its 
greatness not merely the material effect of what they 
did, not merely the laws they placed upon the statute 
books or the victories they won over armed foes, but 
also the immense but indefinable moral influence 
produced by their deeds and words themselves upon 
the national character. It would be difficult to ex- 
aggerate the material effects of the careers of Wash- 
ington and of Lincoln upon the United States. 
Without Washington we should probably never have 
won our independence of the British crown, and we 
should almost certainly have failed to become a great 
nation, remaining instead a cluster of jangling lit- 

* The Forum, February, 1895. 

(17) 



i8 American Ideals 

tie communities, drifting toward the type of gov- 
ernment prevalent in Spanish America. Without 
Lincoln we might perhaps have failed to keep the 
political unity we had won; and even if, as is pos- 
sible, we had kept it, both the struggle by which 
it was kept and the results of this struggle would 
have been so different that the effect upon our na- 
tional history could not have failed to be profound. 
Yet the nation's debt to these men is not confined 
to what it owes them for its material well-being, in- 
calculable though this debt is. Beyond the fact that 
we are an independent and united people, with half a 
continent as our heritage, lies the fact that every 
American is richer by the heritage of the noble deeds 
and noble words of Washington and of Lincoln. 
Each of us who reads the Gettysburg speech or the 
second inaugural address of the greatest American 
of the nineteenth century, or who studies the long 
campaigns and lofty statesmanship of that other 
American who was even greater, can not but feel 
within him that lift toward things higher and nobler 
which can never be bestowed by the enjoyment of 
mere material prosperity. 

It is not only the country which these men helped 
to make and helped to save that is ours by inheri- 
tance ; we inherit also all that is best and highest in 
their characters and in their lives. We inherit from 
Lincoln and from the might of Lincoln's generation 
not merely the freedom of those who once were 
slaves ; for we inherit also the fact of the freeing of 
them; we inherit the glory and the honor and the 



American Ideals 19 

wonder of the deed that was done, no less than the 
actual results of the deed when done. The bells that 
rang at the passage of the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion still ring in Whittier's ode; and as men think 
over the real nature of the triumph then scored for 
humankind their hearts shall ever throb as they can 
not over the greatest industrial success or over any 
victory won at a less cost than ours. 

The captains and the armies who, after long years 
of dreary campaigning and bloody, stubborn fighting, 
brought to a close the Civil War have likewise left us 
even more than a reunited realm. The material ef- 
fect of what they did is shown in the fact that the 
same flag flies from the Great Lakes to the Rio 
Grande, and all the people of the United States are 
richer because they are one people and not many, 
because they belong to one great nation and not to 
a contemptible knot of struggling nationalities. But 
besides this, besides the material results of the Civil 
War, we are all, North and South, incalculably richer 
for its memories. We are the richer for each grim 
campaign, for each hard-fought battle. We are the 
richer for valor displayed alike by those who fought 
so valiantly for the right and by those who, no less 
valiantly, fought for what they deemed the right. 
We have in us nobler capacities for what is great 
and good because of the infinite woe and suffering, 
and because of the splendid ultimate triumph. 

In the same way that we are the better for the 
deeds of our mighty men who have served the na- 
tion well, so we are the worse for the deeds and the 



20 American Ideals 

words of those who have striven to bring evil on 
the land. ^lost fortunately we have been free from 
the peril of the most dangerous of all examples. 
We have not had to fight the influence exerted 
over the minds of eager and ambitious men by the 
career of the military adventurer who heads some 
successful revolutionary or separatist movement. 
No man works such incalculable woe to a free coun- 
try as he who teaches young men that one of the 
paths to glory, renown, and temporal success lies 
along the line of armed resistance to the Govern- 
ment, of its attempted overthrow. 

Yet if we are free from the peril of this example, 
there are other perils from which we are not free. 
All through our career we have had to war against 
a tendency to regard, in the individual and the 
nation alike, as most important, things that are of 
comparatively little importance. W^e rightfully value 
success, but sometimes we overvalue it, for we tend 
to forget that success may be obtained by means 
which should make it abhorred and despised by every 
honorable man. One section of the communitv- dei- 
fies as "smartness" the kind of trickery which en- 
ables a man without conscience to succeed in the 
financial or political world. Another section of the 
community deifies violent homicidal lawlessness. If 
ever our people as a whole adopt these views, then we 
shall have proved that we are unworthy of the heri- 
tage our forefathers left us ; and our countr\^ will go 
down in ruin. 

The people that do harm in the end are not the 



American Ideals 21 

wrong-doers whom all execrate; they are the men 
who do not do quite as much wrong, but who are 
applauded instead of being execrated. The career 
of Benedict Arnold has done us no harm as a nation 
because of the universal horror it inspired. The men 
who have done us harm are those who have advo- 
cated disunion, but have done it so that they have 
been enabled to keep their political position; who 
have advocated repudiation of debts, or other finan- 
cial dishonesty, but have kept their standing in the 
community; who preach the doctrines of anarchy, 
but refrain from action that will bring them within 
the pale of the law; for these men lead thousands 
astray by the fact that they go unpunished or even 
are rewarded for their misdeeds. 

It is unhappily true that we inherit the evil as 
well as the good done by those who have gone before 
us, and in the one case as in the other the influence 
extends far beyond the mere material effects. The 
foes of order harm quite as much by example as by 
what they actually accomplish. So it is with the 
equally dangerous criminals of the wealthy classes. 
The conscienceless stock speculator who acquires 
wealth by swindling his fellows, by debauching 
judges and corrupting legislatures, and who ends his 
days with the reputation of being among the richest 
men in America, exerts over the minds of the rising 
generation an influence worse than that of the aver- 
age murderer or bandit, because his career is even 
more dazzling in its success, and even more dan- 
gerous in its effects upon the community. Any one 



22 American Ideals 

who reads the essays of Charles Francis Adams and 
Henry Adams, entitled "A Chapter of Erie," and 
"The Gold Conspiracy in New York," will read 
about the doings of men whose influence for evil 
upon the community is more potent than that of any 
band of anarchists or train robbers. 

There are other members of our mercantile com- 
munity who, being perfectly honest themselves, 
nevertheless do almost as much damage as the dis- 
honest. The professional labor agitator, with all 
his reckless incendiarism of speech, can do no more 
harm than the narrow, hard, selfish merchant or 
manufacturer who deliberately sets himself to keep 
the laborers he employs in a condition of dependence 
which will render them helpless to combine against 
him ; and every such merchant or manufacturer who 
rises to sufficient eminence leaves the record of his 
name and deeds as a legacy of evil to all who come 
after him. 

But of course the worst foes of America are the 
foes to that orderly liberty without which our Re- 
public must speedily perish. The reckless labor agi- 
tator who arouses the mob to riot and bloodshed is 
in the last analysis the most dangerous of the work- 
ingman's enemies. This man is a real peril ; and so 
is his sympathizer, the legislator, who to catch votes 
denounces the judiciary and the military because 
they put down mobs. We Americans have, on the 
whole, a right to be optimists; but it is mere folly 
to blind ourselves to the fact that there are some 
black clouds on the horizon of our future. 



American Ideals 23 

During the summer of 1894, every American capa- 
ble of thinking must at times have pondered very 
gravely over certain features of the national char- 
acter which were brought into unpleasant promi- 
nence by the course of events. The demagogue, in 
all his forms, is as characteristic an evil of a free 
society as the courtier is of a despotism; and 
the attitude of many of our public men at the 
time of the great strike in July, 1894, was such as 
to call down on their heads the hearty condemnation 
of every American who wishes well to his country. 
It would be difficult to overestimate the damage done 
by the example and action of a man like Governor 
Altgeld of Illinois. Whether he is honest or not 
in his beliefs is not of the slightest consequence. 
He is as emphatically the foe of decent government 
as Tweed himself, and is capable of doing far more 
damage than Tweed. The Governor, who began his 
career by pardoning anarchists, and whose most note- 
worthy feat since was his bitter and undignified, but 
fortunately futile, campaign against the election of 
the upright judge who sentenced the anarchists, is 
the foe of every true American and is the foe par- 
ticularly of every honest workingman. With such 
a man it was to be expected that he should in time 
of civic commotion act as the foe of the law-abiding 
and the friend of the lawless classes, and endeavor, 
in company with the lowest and most abandoned 
office-seeking politicians, to prevent proper measures 
being taken to prevent riot and to punish the rioters. 
Had it not been for the admirable action of the Fed- 



24 American Ideals 

eral Government, Chicago would have seen a repe- 
tition of what occurred during the Paris Commune, 
while Illinois would have been torn by a fierce social 
war; and for all the horrible waste of life that this 
would have entailed Governor Altgeld would have 
been primarily responsible. It was a most fortu- 
nate thing that the action at Washington was so quick 
and so emphatic. Senator Davis of Minnesota set the 
key of patriotism at the time when men were still 
puzzled and hesitated. The President and Attorney- 
General Ohiey acted with equal wisdom and cour- 
age, and the danger was averted. The completeness 
of the victory of the Federal authorities, represent- 
ing the cause of law and order, has been perhaps 
one reason why it was so soon forgotten ; and now 
not a few shortsighted people need to be reminded 
that when we were on the brink of an almost ter- 
rific explosion the Governor of IlHnois did his best 
to work to this country a measure of harm as great 
as any ever planned by Benedict Arnold, and that we 
were saved by the resolute action of the Federal 
judiciary and of the regular army. Moreover, Gov- 
ernor Altgeld, though pre-eminent, did not stand 
alone in his unenviable prominence. Governor Waite 
of Colorado stood with him. Most of the Populist 
Governors of the Western States, and the Republi- 
can Governor of California and the Democratic Gov- 
ernor of North Dakota, shared the shame with him ; 
and it makes no difference whether in catering to 
riotous mobs they paid heed to their own timidity 
and weakness, or to that spirit of blatant dema- 



American Ideals 25 

gogism which, more than any other, jeopardizes the 
existence of free institutions. On the other hand, 
the action of the then Governor of Ohio, Mr. Mc- 
Kinley, entitled him to the gratitude of all good 
citizens. 

Every true American, eveiy man who thinks, and 
who if the occasion comes is ready to act, may do 
well to ponder upon the evil wrought by the law- 
lessness of the disorderly classes when once they 
are able to elect their own chiefs to power. If the 
Government generally got into the hands of men 
such as Altgeld, the Republic would go to pieces in 
a year; and it would be right that it should go 
to pieces, for the election of such men shows that 
the people electing them are unfit to be intrusted 
with self-government. 

There are, however, plenty of wrong-doers be- 
sides those who commit the overt act. Too much 
can not be said against the men of wealth who sacri- 
fice everything to getting wealth. There is not in 
the world a more ignoble character than the mere 
money-getting American, insensible to every duty, 
regardless of every principle, bent only on amass- 
ing a fortune, and putting his fortune only to the 
basest uses — whether these uses be to speculate in 
stocks and wreck railroads himself, or to allow his 
son to lead a life of foolish and expensive idleness 
and gross debauchery, or to purchase some scoun- 
drel of high social position, foreign or native, for 
his daughter. Such a man is only the more dan- 
gerous if he occasionally does some deed like found- 
2 . Vol. I. 



26 American Ideals 

ing a college or endowing a church, which makes 
those good people who are also foolish forget his 
real iniquity. These men are equally careless of 
the workingmen, whom they oppress, and of the 
State, whose existence they imperil. There are not 
very many of them, but there is a very great number 
of men who approach more or less closely to the 
type, and, just in so far as they do so approach, they 
are curses to the country. The man who is con- 
tent to let politics go from bad to worse, jesting 
at the corruption of politicians, the man who is con- 
tent to see the maladministration of justice without 
an immediate and resolute effort to reform it, is 
shirking his duty and is preparing the way for in- 
finite woe in the future. Hard, brutal indifference 
to the right, and an equally brutal shortsightedness 
as to the inevitable results of corruption and injus- 
tice, are baleful beyond measure; and yet they are 
characteristic of a great many Americans who think 
themselves perfectly respectable, and who are con- 
sidered thriving, prosperous men by their easy-going 
fellow-citizens. 

Another class, merging into this, and only less 
dangerous, is that of the men whose ideals are pure- 
ly material. These are the men who are willing to 
go for good government when they think it will 
pay, but who measure everything by the shop-till, 
the people who are unable to appreciate any quality 
that is not a mercantile commodity, who do not un- 
derstand that a poet may do far more for a country 
than the owner of a nail factory, who do not realize 



American Ideals 27 

that no amount of commercial prosperity can supply 
the lack of the heroic virtues, or can in itself solve 
the terrible social problems which all the civilized 
world is now facing. The mere materialist is, above 
all things, shortsighted. In a recent article Mr. 
Edward Atkinson casually mentioned that the regu- 
lar army could now render the country no "effective 
or useful service." Two months before this sapient 
remark was printed the regular army had saved 
Chicago from the fate of Paris in 1870 and had pre- 
vented a terrible social war in the West. At the 
end of this article Mr. Atkinson indulged in a curi- 
ous rhapsody against the navy, denouncing its exist- 
ence and being especially wrought up, not because 
war-vessels take life, but because they "destroy com- 
merce." To men of a certain kind, trade and prop- 
erty are far more sacred than life or honor, of far 
more consequence than the great thoughts and lofty 
emotions, which alone make a nation mighty. They 
believe, with- a faith almost touching in its utter 
feebleness, that "the Angel of Peace draped in a gar- 
ment of untaxed calico," has given her final mes- 
sage to men when she has implored them to devote 
all their energies to producing oleomargarine at a 
quarter of a cent less a firkin, or to importing wool- 
lens for a fraction less than they can be made at 
home. These solemn prattlers strive after an ideal 
in which they shall happily unite the imagination of 
a green-grocer with the heart of a Bengalee baboo. 
They are utterly incapable of feeling one thrill of 
generous emotion, or the slightest throb of that 



28 American Ideals 

pulse which gives to the world statesmen, patriots, 
warriors, and poets, and which makes a nation other 
than a cumberer of the world's surface. In the 
concluding page of his article Mr. Atkinson, com- 
placently advancing his panacea, his quack cure-all, 
says that "all evil powers of the world will go down 
before" a policy of "reciprocity of trade without 
obstruction"! Fatuity can go no further. 

No Populist who wishes a currency based on corn 
and cotton stands in more urgent need of applied 
common-sense than does the man who believes that 
the adoption of any policy, no matter what, in ref- 
erence to our foreign commerce, will cut that tan- 
gled knot of social well-being and misery at which 
the fingers of the London free-trader clutch as help- 
lessly as those of the Berlin protectionist. Such a 
man represents individually an almost imponderable 
element in the work and thought of the community ; 
but in the aggregate he stands for a real danger, 
because he stands for a feeling evident of late years 
among many respectable people. The people who 
pride themselves upon having a purely commercial 
ideal are apparently unaware that such an ideal is 
as essentially mean and sordid as any in the world, 
and that no bandit community of the Middle Ages 
can have led a more unlovely life than would be the 
life of men to whom trade and manufactures were 
everything, and to whom such words as national 
honor and glory, as courage and daring, and loyalty 
and unselfishness, had become meaningless. The 
merely material, the merely commercial ideal, the 



American Ideals 29 

ideal of the men "whose fatherland is the till," is in 
its very essence debasing and lowering. It is as true 
now as ever it was that no man and no nation shall 
live by bread alone. Thrift and industry are indis- 
pensable virtues ; but they are not all-sufficient. We 
must base our appeals for civic and national better- 
ment on nobler grounds than those of mere business 
expediency. 

We have examples enough and to spare that tend 
to evil ; nevertheless, for our good fortune, the men 
who have most impressed themselves upon the 
thought of the nation have left behind them careers 
the influence of which must tell for good. The un- 
scrupulous speculator who rises to enormous wealth 
by swindling his neighbor; the capitalist who op- 
presses the workingman; the agitator who wrongs 
the workingman yet more deeply by trying to teach 
him to rely not upon himself, but partly upon the 
charity of individuals or of the state and partly upon 
mob violence ; the man in public life who is a dema- 
gogue or corrupt, and the newspaper writer who 
fails to attack him because of his corruption, or who 
slanderously assails him when he is honest; the po- 
litical leader who, cursed by some obliquity of moral 
or of mental vision, seeks to produce sectional or 
social strife — all these, though important in their 
day, have hitherto failed to leave any lasting im- 
press upon the life of the nation. The men who have 
profoundly influenced the growth of our national 
character have been in most cases precisely those 
men whose influence was for the best and was 



30 American Ideals 

strongly felt as antagonistic to the worst tendency 
of the age. The great writers, who have written in 
prose or verse, have done much for us. The great 
orators, whose burning words on behalf of liberty, 
of union, of honest government, have rung through 
our legislative halls, have done even more. Most of 
all has been done by the men who have spoken to us 
through deeds and not words, or whose words have 
gathered their especial charm and significance be- 
cause they came from men who did speak in deeds. 
A nation's greatness lies in its possibility of achieve- 
ment in the present, and nothing helps it more than 
the consciousness of achievement in the past. 



II 

TRUE AMERICANISM* 

PATRIOTISM was once defined as "the last ref- 
uge of a scoundrel" ; and somebody has recently 
remarked that when Dr. Johnson gave this definition 
he was ignorant of the infinite possibilities contained 
in the word "reform." Of course both gibes were 
quite justifiable, in so far as they were aimed at peo- 
ple who use noble names to cloak base purposes. 
Equally of course the man shows little wisdom and 
a low sense of duty who fails to see that love of 
country is one of the elemental virtues, even though 
scoundrels play upon it for their own selfish ends; 
and, inasmuch as abuses continually grow up in 
civic life as in all other kinds of life, the statesman 
is indeed a weakling who hesitates to reform these 
abuses because the word "reform" is often on the 
lips of men who are silly or dishonest. 

What is true of patriotism and reform is true also 
of Americanism. There are plenty of scoundrels al- 
ways ready to try to belittle reform movements or 
to bolster up existing iniquities in the name of 
Americanism ; but this does not alter the fact that the 
man who can do most in this country is and must 

* The Forum, April, 1894. 

(31) 



32 True Americanism 

be the man whose Americanism is most sincere and 
intense. Outrageous though it is to use a noble idea 
as the cloak for evil, it is still worse to assail the 
noble idea itself because it can thus be used. The 
men who do iniquity in the name of patriotism, of 
reform, of Americanism, are merely one small divi- 
sion of the class that has always existed and will 
always exist, — the class of hypocrites and dema- 
gogues, the class that is always prompt to steal the 
watchwords of righteousness and use them in the 
interests of evil-doing. 

The stoutest and truest Americans are the very 
men who have the least sympathy with the people 
who invoke the spirit of Americanism to aid what 
is vicious in our government or to throw obstacles 
in the way of those who strive to reform it. It is 
contemptible to oppose a movement for good be- 
cause that movement has already succeeded some- 
where else, or to champion an existing abuse be- 
cause our people have always been wedded to it. 
To appeal to national prejudice against a given re- 
form movement is in every way unworthy and silly. 
It is as childish to denounce free trade because Eng- 
land has adopted it as to advocate it for the same rea- 
son. It is eminently proper, in dealing with the 
tariff, to consider the effect of tariff legislation in 
time past upon other nations as well as the effect 
upon our own ; but in drawing conclusions it is in the 
last degree foolish to try to excite prejudice against 
one system because it is in vogue in some given 
country, or to try to excite prejudice in its favor 



True Americanism 23 

because the economists of that country have found 
that it was suited to their own pecuHar needs. In 
attempting to solve our difficult problem of munici- 
pal government it is mere folly to refuse to profit 
by whatever is good in the examples of Manchester 
and Berlin because these cities are foreign, exactly 
as it is mere folly blindly to copy their examples 
without reference to our own totally different condi- 
tions. As for the absurdity of declaiming against 
civil-service reform, for instance, as "Chinese," be- 
cause written examinations have been used in China, 
it would be quite as wise to declaim against gun- 
powder because it was first utilized by the same 
people. In short, the man who, whether from mere 
dull fatuity or from an active interest in misgovern- 
ment, tries to appeal to American prejudice against 
things foreign, so as to induce Americans to oppose 
any measure for good, should be looked on by his 
fellow-countrymen with the heartiest contempt. So 
much for the men who appeal to the spirit of Amer- 
icanism to sustain us in wrong-doing. But we must 
never let our contempt for these men blind us to the 
nobility of the idea which they strive to degrade. 
We Americans have many grave problems to 
solve, many threatening evils to fight, and many 
deeds to do, if, as we hope and believe, we have 
the wisdom, the strength, the courage, and the vir- 
tue to do them. 'But we must face facts as they are. 
We must neither surrender ourselves to a foolish op- 
timism, nor succumb to a timid and ignoble pes- 
simism. Our nation is that one among all the na- 



34 True Americanism 

tions of the earth which holds in its hands the fate 
of the coming years. We enjoy exceptional advan- 
tages, and are menaced by exceptional dangers ; and 
all signs indicate that we shall either fail greatly or 
succeed greatly. I firmly believe that we shall suc- 
ceed ; but we must not foolishly blink the dangers by 
which we are threatened, for that is the way to fail. 
On the contrary, we must soberly set to work to find 
out all we can about the existence and extent of every 
evil, must acknowledge it to be such, and must then 
attack it with unyielding resolution. There are 
many such evils, and each must be fought after a 
separate fashion; yet there is one quality which we 
must bring to the solution of every problem, — that 
is, an intense and fervid Americanism. We shall 
never be successful over the dangers that confront 
us ; we shall never achieve true greatness, nor reach 
the lofty ideal which the founders and preservers of 
our mighty Federal Republic have set before us, un- 
less we are Americans in heart and soul, in spirit and 
purpose, keenly alive to the responsibility implied in 
the very name of American, and proud beyond meas- 
ure of the glorious privilege of bearing it. 

There are two or three sides to the question of 
Americanism, and two or three senses in which the 
word 'Americanism" can be used to express the an- 
tithesis of what is unwholesome and undesirable. 
In the first place we wish to be broadly American 
and national, as opposed to being local or sectional. 
We do not wish, in politics, in literature, or in art, 
to develop that unwholesome parochial spirit, that 



True Americanism 35 

over-exaltation of the little community at the ex- 
pense of the great nation, which produces what has 
been described as the patriotism of the village, the 
patriotism of the belfry. Politically, the indulgence 
of this spirit was the chief cause of the calamities 
which befell the ancient republics of Greece, the 
mediaeval republics of Italy, and the petty States 
of Germany as it was in the last century. It is 
this spirit of provincial patriotism, this inability to 
take a view of broad adhesion to the whole nation 
that has been the chief among the causes that have 
produced such anarchy in the South American 
States, and which have resulted in presenting to 
us, not one great Spanish-American federal nation 
stretching from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, but 
a squabbling multitude of revolution-ridden States, 
not one of which stands even in the second rank 
as a power. However, politically this question of 
American nationality has been settled once for all. 
We are no longer in danger of repeating in our 
history the shameful and contemptible disasters that 
have befallen the Spanish possessions on this con- 
tinent since they threw o£f the yoke of Spain. In- 
deed there is, all through our life, very much less 
of this parochial spirit than there was formerly. 
Still there is an occasional outcropping here and 
there; and it is just as well that we should keep 
steadily in mind the futility of talking of a North- 
ern literature or a Southern literature, an Eastern 
or a Western school of art or science. Joel Chandler 
Harris is emphatically a national writer; so is Mark 



26 True Americanism 

Twain. They do not write merely for Georgia or 
Missouri or California any more than for Illinois 
or Connecticut; they write as Americans and for 
all people who can read English. St. Gaudens lives 
in New York; but his work is just as distinctive of 
Boston or Chicago. It is of very great consequence 
that we should have a full and ripe literary develop- 
ment in the United States, but it is not of the least 
consequence whether New York, or Boston, or Chi- 
cago, or San Francisco becomes the literary or 
artistic centre of the United States. 

There is a second side to this question of a broad 
Americanism, however. The patriotism of the vil- 
lage or the belfry is bad, but the lack of all patri- 
otism is even worse. There are philosophers who 
assure us, that in the future, patriotism will be re- 
garded not as a virtue at all, but merely as a men- 
tal stage in the journey toward a state of feeling 
when our patriotism will include the whole human 
race and all the world. This may be so; but the 
age of which these philosophers speak is still several 
seons distant. In fact, philosophers of this type are 
so very advanced that they are of no practical ser- 
vice to the present generation. It may be, that in 
ages so remote that we can not now understand 
any of the feelings of those who will dwell in them, 
patriotism will no longer be regarded as a virtue, 
exactly as it may be that in those remote ages peo- 
ple will look down upon and disregard monogamic 
marriage; but as things now are and have been for 
two or three thousand years past, and are likely to 



True Americanism 37 

be for two or three thousand years to come, the 
words "home" and "country" mean a great deal. 
Nor do they show any tendency to lose their sig- 
nificance. At present, treason, like adultery, ranks 
as one of the worst of all possible crimes. 

One may fall very short of treason and yet be 
an undesirable citizen in the community. The man 
who becomes Europeanized, who loses his power of 
doing good work on this side of the water, and 
who loses his love for his native land, is not a 
traitor; but he is a silly and undesirable citizen. 
He is as emphatically a noxious element in our 
body politic as is the man who comes here from 
abroad and remains a foreigner. Nothing will more 
quickly or more surely disqualify a man from doing 
good work in the world than the acquirement of 
that flaccid habit of mind which its possessors style 
cosmopolitanism. 

It is not only necessary to Americanize the im- 
migrants of foreign birth who settle among us, but 
it is even more necessary for those among us who 
are by birth and descent already Americans not to 
throw away our birthright, and, with incredible 
and contemptible folly, wander back to bow down 
before the alien gods whom our forefathers for- 
sook. It is hard to believe that there is any neces- 
sity to warn Americans that, when they seek to 
model themselves on the lines of other civilizations, 
they make themselves the butts of all right-thinking 
men; and yet the necessity certainly exists to give 
this warning to many of our citizens who pride 



j8 True Americanism 

themselves on their standing in the world of art 
and letters, or, perchance, on what they would style 
their social leadership in the community. It is al- 
ways better to be an original than an imitation, 
even when the imitation is something better than 
the original ; but what shall we say of the fool who 
is content to be an imitation of something worse? 
Even if the weaklings who seek to be other than 
Americans were right in deeming other nations to 
be better than their own, the fact yet remains that 
to be a first-class American is fifty-fold better than 
to be a second-class imitation of a Frenchman or 
Englishman. As a matter of fact, however, those 
of our countrymen who do believe in American in- 
feriority are always individuals who, however cul- 
tivated, have some organic weakness in their moral 
or mental makeup; and the great mass of our peo- 
ple, who are robustly patriotic, and who have sound, 
healthy minds, are justified in regarding these feeble 
renegades with a half-impatient and half-amused 
scorn. 

We believe in waging relentless war on rank- 
growing evils of all kinds, and it makes no differ- 
ence to us if they happen to be of purely native 
growth. We grasp at any good, no matter whence 
it comes. We do not accept the evil attendant upon 
another system of government as an adequate ex- 
cuse for that attendant upon our own ; the fact that 
the courtier is a scamp does not render the dema- 
gogue any the less a scoundrel. But it remains true 
that, in spite of all our faults and shortcomings, no 



True Americanism 39 

other land offers such glorious possibilities to the 
man able to take advantage of them as does ours; 
it remains true that no one of our people can do 
any work really worth doing unless he does it pri- 
marily as an American. It is because certain classes 
of our people still retain their spirit of colonial de- 
pendence on, and exaggerated deference to, Eu- 
ropean opinion, that they fail to accomplish what 
they ought to. It is precisely along the lines where 
we have worked most independently that we have 
accomplished the greatest results ; and it is in those 
professions where there has been no servility to, 
but merely a wise profiting by, foreign experience, 
that we have produced our greatest men. Our 
soldiers and statesmen and orators; our explor- 
ers, our wilderness-winners, and commonwealth- 
builders; the men who have made our laws and 
seen that they were executed; and the other men 
whose energy and ingenuity have created our mar- 
velous material prosperity, — all these have been men 
who have drawn wisdom from the experience of 
every age and nation, but who have nevertheless 
thought, and worked, and conquered, and lived, 
and died, purely as Americans; and on the whole 
they have done better work than has been done 
in any other country during the short period of 
our national life. 

On the other hand, it is in those professions 
where our people have striven hardest to mold 
themselves in conventional European forms that 
they have succeeded least; and this holds true to 



40 True Americanism 

the present day, the failure being of course most 
conspicuous where the man takes up his abode in 
Europe ; where he becomes a second-rate European, 
because he is over-civihzed, over-sensitive, over-re- 
fined, and has lost the hardihood and manly courage 
by which alone he can conquer in the keen struggle 
of our national life. Be it remembered, too, that 
this same being does not really become a European ; 
he only ceases being an American, and becomes 
nothing. He throws away a great prize for the 
sake of a lesser one, and does not even get the 
lesser one. The painter who goes to Paris, not 
merely to get two or three years' thorough train- 
ing in his art, but with the deliberate purpose of 
taking up his abode there, and with the intention 
of following in the ruts worn deep by ten thousand 
earlier travelers, instead of striking off to rise or 
fall on a new line, thereby forfeits all chance of 
doing the best work. He must content himself 
with aiming at that kind of mediocrity which con- 
sists in doing fairly well what has already been 
done better; and he usually never even sees the 
grandeur and picturesqueness lying open before the 
eyes of every man who can read the book of Amer- 
ica's past and the book of America's present. Thus 
it is with the undersized man of letters, who flees 
his country because he, with his delicate, effeminate 
sensitiveness, finds the conditions of life on this 
side of the water crude and raw; in other words, 
because he finds that he can not play a man's part 
among men, and so goes where he will be shel- 



True Americanism 41 

tered from the winds that harden stouter souls. 
This emigre may write graceful and pretty verses, 
essays, novels; but he will never do work to com- 
pare with that of his brother, who is strong enough 
to stand on his own feet, and do his work as an 
American. Thus it is with the scientist who spends 
his youth in a German university, and can thence- 
forth work only in the fields already fifty times 
furrowed by the German plows. Thus it is with 
that most foolish of parents who sends his children 
to be educated abroad, not knowing — what every 
clear-sighted man from Washington and Jay down 
has known — that the American who is to make his 
way in America should be brought up among his 
fellow Americans. It is among the people who 
like to consider themselves, and, indeed, to a large 
extent are, the leaders of the so-called social world, 
especially in some of the Northeastern cities, that 
this colonial habit of thought, this thoroughly pro- 
vincial spirit of admiration for things foreign, and 
inability to stand on one's own feet, becomes most 
evident and most despicable. We believe in every 
kind of honest and lawful pleasure, so long as the 
getting it is not made man's chief business; and 
we believe heartily in the good that can be done 
by men of leisure who work hard in their leisure, 
whether at politics or philanthropy, literature or 
art. But a leisure class whose leisure simply means 
idleness is a curse to the community, and in so far 
as its members distinguish themselves chiefly by 
aping the worst — not the best — traits of similar 



42 True Americanism 

people across the water, they become both comic 
and noxious elements of the body politic. 

The third sense in which the word "American- 
ism" may be employed is with reference to the 
Americanizing of the new-comers to our shores. We 
must Americanize them in every way, in speech, in 
political ideas and principles, and in their way of 
looking at the relations between Church and State. 
We welcome the German or the Irishman who be- 
comes an American. We have no use for the Ger- 
man or Irishman who remains such. We do not 
wish German-Americans and Irish-Americans who 
figure as such in our social and political life; we 
want only Americans, and, provided they are such, 
we do not care whether they are of native or of 
Irish or of German ancestry. We have no room in 
any healthy American community for a German- 
American vote or an Irish-American vote, and it is 
contemptible demagogy to put planks into any party 
platform with the purpose of catching such a vote. 
We have no room for any people who do not act 
and vote simply as Americans, and as nothing else. 
Moreover, we have as little use for people who carry 
religious prejudices into our politics as for those 
who carry prejudices of caste or nationality. We 
stand unalterably in favor of the public-school sys- 
tem in its entirety. We believe that English and 
no other language is that in which all the school ex- 
ercises should be conducted. We are against any 
division of the school fund, and against any appro- 
priation of public money for sectarian purposes. We 



True Americanism 43 

are against any recognition whatever by the State in 
any shape or form of State-aided parochial schools. 
But we are equally opposed to any discrimination 
against or for a man because of his creed. We de- 
mand that all citizens, Protestant and Catholic, Jew 
and Gentile, shall have fair treatment in every way ; 
that all alike shall have their rights guaranteed 
them. The very reasons that make us unqualified in 
our opposition to State-aided sectarian schools make 
us equally bent that, in the management of our pub- 
lic schools, the adherents of each creed shall be given 
exact and equal justice, wholly without regard to 
their religious affiliations; that trustees, superin- 
tendents, teachers, scholars, all alike, shall be treated 
without any reference whatsoever to the creed they 
profess. We maintain that it is an outrage, in vot- 
ing for a man for any position, whether State or 
national, to take into account his religious faith, 
provided only he is a good American. When a se- 
cret society does what in some places the American 
Protective Association seems to have done, and tries 
to proscribe Catholics both politically and socially, 
the members of such society show that they them- 
selves are as utterly un-American, as alien to our 
school of political thought, as the worst immigrants 
who land on our shores. Their conduct is equally 
base and contemptible; they are the worst foes of 
our public-school system, because they strengthen 
the hands of its ultramontane enemies; they should 
receive the hearty condemnation of all Americans 
who are truly patriotic. 



44 True Americanism 

The mighty tide of immigration to our shores has 
brought in its train much of good and much of evil ; 
and whether the good or the evil shall predominate 
depends mainly on whether these new-comers do or 
do not throw themselves heartily into our national 
life, cease to be European, and become Americans 
like the rest of us. More than a third of the people 
of the Northern States are of foreign birth or par- 
entage. An immense number of them have become 
completely Americanized, and these stand on ex- 
actly the same plane as the descendants of any Puri- 
tan, Cavalier, or Knickerbocker among us, and do 
their full and honorable share of the nation's work. 
But where immigrants or the sons of immigrants 
do not heartily and in good faith throw in their lot 
with us, but cling to the speech, the customs, the 
ways of life, and the habits of thought of the Old 
World which they have left, they thereby harm both 
themselves and us. If they remain alien elements, 
unassimilaled, and with interests separate from ours, 
they are mere obstructions to the current of our na- 
tional life, and, moreover, can get no good from it 
themselves. In fact, though we ourselves also suffer 
from their perversity, it is they who really suffer 
most. It is an immense benefit to the European im- 
migrant to change him into an American citizen. 
To bear the name of American is to bear the most 
honorable of titles; and whoever does not so be- 
lieve has no business to bear the name at all, and, if 
he comes from Europe, the sooner he goes back there 
the better. Besides, the man who does not become 



True Americanism 45 

Americanized nevertheless fails to remain a Euro- 
pean, and becomes nothing at all. The immigrant 
can not possibly remain what he was, or continue 
to be a member of the Old- World society. If he 
tries to retain his old language, in a few generations 
it becomes a barbarous jargon; if he tries to retain 
his old customs and ways of life, in a few genera- 
tions he becomes an uncouth boor. He has cut him- 
self off from the Old World, and can not retain his 
connection with it; and if he wishes ever to amount 
to anything he must throw himself heart and soul, 
and without reservation, into the new life to which 
he has come. It is urgently necessary to check and 
regulate our immigration, by much more drastic laws 
than now exist ; and this should be done both to keep 
out laborers who tend to depress the labor market, 
and to keep out races which do not assimilate read- 
ily with our own, and unworthy individuals of all 
races — not only criminals, idiots, and paupers, but 
anarchists of the Most and O'Donovan Rossa type. 
From his own standpoint, it is beyond all ques- 
tion the wise thing for the immigrant to become 
thoroughly Americanized. Moreover, from our 
standpoint, we have a right to demand it. We 
freely extend the hand of welcome and of good-fel- 
lowship to every man, no matter what his creed or 
birthplace, who comes here honestly intent on be- 
coming a good United States citizen like the rest of 
us; but we have a right, and it is our duty to de- 
mand that he shall indeed become so, and shall not 
confuse the issues with which we are struggling by 



46 True Americanism 

introducing among us Old-World quarrels and prej- 
udices. There are certain ideas which he must give 
up. For instance, he must learn that American life 
is incompatible with the existence of any form of 
anarchy, or of any secret society having murder for 
its aim, whether at home or abroad; and he must 
learn that we exact full religious toleration and the 
complete separation of Church and State. More- 
over, he must not bring in his Old- World religious 
race and national antipathies, but must merge them 
into love for our common country, and must take 
pride in the things which we can all take pride in. 
He must revere only our flag ; not only must it come 
first, but no other flag should even come second. He 
must learn to celebrate Washington's birthday rather 
than that of the Queen or Kaiser, and the Fourth 
of July instead of St. Patrick's Day. Our political 
and social questions must be settled on their own 
merits, and not complicated by quarrels between 
England and Ireland, or France and Germany, with 
which we have nothing to do; it is an outrage to 
fight an American political campaign with reference 
to questions of European politics. Above all, the im- 
migrant must learn to talk and think and he United 
States. 

The immigrant of to-day can learn much from 
the experience of the immigrants of the past, who 
came to America prior to the Revolutionary War. 
We were then already, what we are now, a people of 
mixed blood. Many of our most illustrious Revo- 
lutionary names were borne by men of Huguenot 



True Americanism 47 

blood — Jay, Sevier, Marion, Laurens. But the Hu- 
guenots were, on the whole, the best immigrants we 
have ever received; sooner than" any other, and more 
completely, they became American in speech, con- 
viction, and thought. The Hollanders took longer 
than the Huguenots to become completely assimi- 
lated; nevertheless they in the end became so, im- 
mensely to their own advantage. One of the lead- 
ing Revolutionary generals, Schuyler, and one of the 
Presidents of the United States, Van Buren, were 
of Dutch blood ; but they rose to their positions, the 
highest in the land, because they had become Amer- 
icans and had ceased being Hollanders. If they 
had remained members of an alien body, cut off by 
their speech and customs and belief from the rest of 
the American community, Schuyler would have lived 
his life as a boorish, provincial squire, and Van 
Buren would have ended his days a small tavern- 
keeper. So it is with the Germans of Pennsylvania. 
Those of them who. became Americanized have fur 
nished to our history a multitude of honorable names, 
from the days of the Muhlenbergs onward ; but 
those who did not become Americanized form to the 
present day an unimportant body, of no significance 
in American existence. So it is with the Irish, who 
gave to Revolutionary annals such names as Car- 
roll and Sullivan, and to the Civil War men like 
Sheridan — men who were Americans and nothing 
else : while the Irish who remain such, and busy 
themselves solely with the alien politics, can have 
only an unhealthy influence upon American life, 



48 True Americanism 

and can never rise as do their compatriots who be- 
come straightout Americans. Thus it has ever been 
with all people who have come hither, of whatever 
stock or blood. The same thing- is true of the 
churches. A church which remains foreign, in lan- 
guage or spirit, is doomed. 

But I wish to be distinctly understood on one 
point. Americanism is a question of spirit, con- 
viction, and purpose, not of creed or birthplace. The 
politician who bids for the Irish or German vote, or 
the Irishman or German who votes as an Irishman 
or German, is despicable, for all citizens of this com- 
monwealth should vote solely as Americans ; but he 
is not a whit less despicable than the voter who votes 
against a good American, merely because that Amer- 
ican happens to have been bom in Ireland or Ger- 
many. Know-nothingism, in any form, is as utterly 
un-American as foreignism. It is a base outrage to 
oppose a man because of his religion or birthplace, 
and all good citizens will hold any such effort in ab- 
horrence. A Scandinavian, a German, or an Irish- 
man who has really become an American has the 
right to stand on exactly the same footing as any 
native-born citizen in the land, and is just as much 
entitled to the friendship and support, social and po- 
litical, of his neighbors. Among the men with 
whom I have been thrown in close personal contact 
socially, and who have been among my stanchest 
friends and allies politically, are not a few Ameri- 
cans who happen to have been born on the other side 
of the water, in Germany, Ireland, Scandinavia ; and 



True Americanism 49 

there could be no better men in the ranks of our 
native-born citizens. 

In closing, I can not better express the ideal at- 
titude that should be taken by our fellow-citizens of 
foreign birth than by quoting the words of a rep- 
resentative American, born in Germany, the Hon- 
orable Richard Guenther of Wisconsin. In a speech 
spoken at the time of the Samoan trouble, he said : 

"We know as well as any other class of American 
citizens where our duties belong. We will work for 
our country in time of peace and fight for it in time 
of war, if a time of war should ever come. When 
I say our country, I mean, of course, our adopted 
country. I mean the United States of America. 
After passing through the crucible of naturalization, 
we are no longer Germans ; we are Americans. Our 
attachment to America can not be measured by the 
length of our residence here. We are Americans 
from the moment we touch the American shore until 
we are laid in American graves. We will fight for 
America whenever necessary. America, first, last, 
and all the time. America against Germany, Amer- 
ica against the world ; America, right or wrong ; al- 
ways America. We are Americans." 

All honor to the man who spoke such words as 
those ; and I believe they express the feelings of the 
great majority of those among our fellow-Ameri- 
can citizens who were born abroad. We Americans 
can only do our allotted task well if we face it stead- 

3 Vol. I. 



^o True Americanism 

ily and bravely, seeing but not fearing the dangers. 
Above all we must stand shoulder to shoulder, not 
asking as to the ancestry or creed of our comrades, 
but only demanding that they be in very truth 
Americans, and that we all work together, heart, 
hand, and head, for the honor and the greatness of 
our common country. 



Ill 



THE MANLY VIRTUES AND PRACTICAL 

POLITICS * 

SOMETIMES, in addressing men who sincerely 
desire the betterment of our public affairs, but 
who have not taken active part in directing them, 
I feel tempted to tell them that there are two gos- 
pels which should be preached to every reformer. 
The first is the gospel of morality ; the second is the 
gospel of efficiency. 

To decent, upright citizens it is hardly necessary 
to preach the doctrine of morality as applied to the 
affairs of public life. It is an even graver offence 
to sin against the commonwealth than to sin against 
an individual. The man who debauches our public 
life, whether by malversation of funds in office, 
by the actual bribery of voters or of legislators, or 
by the corrupt use of the offices as spoils wherewith 
to reward the unworthy and the vicious for their 
noxious and interested activity in the baser walks of 
political life, — this man is a greater foe to our well- 
being as a nation than is even the defaulting cashier 
of a bank, or the betrayer of a private trust. No 
amount of intelligence and no amount of energy will 
save a nation which is not honest, and no govern- 

* The Forum, July, 1894. 

(SI) 



52 Morality and Efficiency 

ment can ever be a permanent success if administered 
in accordance with base ideals. The first requisite 
in the citizen who wishes to share the work of our 
public life, whether he wishes himself to hold office 
or merely to do his plain duty as an American by 
taking part in the management of our political ma- 
chinery, is that he shall act disinterestedly and with 
a sincere purpose to serve the whole commonwealth. 
But disinterestedness and honesty and unselfish 
desire to do what is right are not enough in them- 
selves. A man must not only be disinterested, but 
he must be efficient. If he goes into politics he must 
go into practical politics, in order to make his influ- 
ence felt. Practical politics must not be construed to 
mean dirty politics. On the contrary, in the long 
run the politics of fraud and treachery and foulness 
are unpractical politics, and the most practical of all 
politicians is the politician who is clean and decent 
and upright. But a man who goes into the actual 
battles of the political world must prepare himself 
much as he would for the struggle in any other 
branch of our life. He must be prepared to meet 
men of far lower ideals than his own, and to face 
things, not as he would wish them, but as they are. 
He must not lose his own high ideal, and yet he 
must face the fact that the majority of the men with 
whom he must work have lower ideals. He must 
stand firmly for what he believes, and yet he must 
realize that political action, to be effective, must be 
the joint action of many men, and that he must 
sacrifice somewhat of his own opinions to those 



Morality and Efficiency 53 

of his associates if he ever hopes to see his desires 
take practical shape. 

The prime thing that every man who takes an 
interest in politics should remember is that he must 
act, and not merely criticise the actions of others. 
It is not the man who sits by his fireside reading his 
evening paper, and saying how bad our politics and 
politicians are, who will ever do anything to save 
us ; it is the man who goes out into the rough hurly- 
burly of the caucus, the primary, and the political 
meeting, and there faces his fellows on equal terms. 
The real service is rendered, not by the critic who 
stands aloof from the contest, but by the man who 
enters into it and bears his part as a man should, un- 
deterred by the blood and the sweat. It is a pleasant 
but a dangerous thing to associate merely with cul- 
tivated, refined men of high ideals and sincere pur- 
pose to do right, and to think that one has done all 
one's duty by discussing politics with such asso- 
ciates. It is a good thing to meet men of this 
stamp ; indeed it is a necessary thing, for we thereby 
brighten our ideals, and keep in touch with the peo- 
ple who are unselfish in their purposes; but if we 
associate with such men exclusively we can accom- 
plish nothing. The actual battle must be fought out 
on other and less pleasant fields. The actual ad- 
vance must be made in the field of practical politics 
among the men who represent or guide or control 
the mass of the voters, the men who are sometimes 
rough and coarse, who sometimes have lower ideals 
than they should, but who are capable, masterful, and 



54 Morality and Efficiency 

efficient. It is only by mingling on equal terms with 
such men, by showing them that one is able to give 
and to receive heavy punishment without flinching, 
and that one can master the details of political man- 
agement as well as they can, that it is possible for a 
man to establish a standing that will be useful to 
him in fighting for a great reform. Every man who 
wishes well to his country is in honor bound to take 
an active part in political life. If he does his duty 
and takes that active part he will be sure occa- 
sionally to commit mistakes and to be guilty of 
shortcomings. For these mistakes and shortcomings 
he will receive the unmeasured denunciation of the 
critics who commit neither because they never do 
anything but criticise. Nevertheless he will have 
the satisfaction of knowing that the salvation of 
the country ultimately lies, not in the hands of his 
critics, but in the hands of those who, however im- 
perfectly, actually do the work of the nation. I 
would not for one moment be understood as ob- 
jecting to criticism or failing to appreciate its im- 
portance. We need fearless criticism of our public 
men and public parties; we need unsparing con- 
demnation of all persons and all principles that 
count for evil in our public life: but it behooves 
every man to remember that the work of the critic, 
important though it is, is of altogether secondary 
importance, and that, in the end, progress is ac- 
complished by the man who does the things, and not 
by the man who talks about how they ought or 
ought not to be done. 



Morality and Efficiency 55 

Therefore the man who wishes to do good in his 
community must go into active pohtical Hfe. If he 
is a Republican, let him join his local Republican 
association; if a Democrat, the Democratic asso- 
ciation; if an Independent, then let him put him- 
self in touch with those who think as he does. In 
any event let him make himself an active force and 
make his influence felt. Whether he works within 
or without party lines he can surely find plenty of 
men who are desirous of good government, and who, 
if they act together, become at once a power on the 
side of righteousness. Of course, in a government 
like ours, a man can accomplish anything only by 
acting in combination with others, and equally, of 
course, a number of people can act together only by 
each sacrificing certain of his beliefs or prejudices. 
That man is indeed unfortunate who can not in any 
given district find some people with whom he can 
conscientiously act. He may find that he can 
do best by acting within a party organization; he 
may find that he can do best by acting, at least for 
certain purposes, or at certain times, outside of party 
organizations, in an independent body of some kind ; 
but with some association he must act if he wishes 
to exert any real influence. 

One thing to be always remembered is that neither 
independence on the one hand nor party fealty on 
the other can ever be accepted as an excuse for fail- 
ure to do active work in politics. The party man 
who offers his allegiance to party as an excuse for 
blindly following his party, right or wrong, and 



56 Morality and Efficiency 

who fails to try to make that party in any way bet- 
ter, commits a crime against the country; and a 
crime quite as serious is committed by the inde- 
pendent who makes his independence an excuse for 
easy self-indulgence, and who thinks that when he 
says he belongs to neither party he is excused from 
the duty of taking part in the practical work of 
party organizations. The party man is bound to do 
his full share in party management. He is bound 
to attend the caucuses and the primaries, to see that 
only good men are put up, and to exert his influence 
as strenuously against the foes of good govern- 
ment within his party, as, through his party ma- 
chinery, he does against those who are without the 
party. In the same way the independent, if he can 
not take part in the regular organizations, is bound 
to do just as much active constructive work (not 
merely the work of criticism) outside; he is bound 
to try to get up an organization of his own and to 
try to make that organization felt in some effective 
manner. Whatever course the man who wishes to 
do his duty by his country takes in reference to 
parties or to independence of parties, he is bound to 
try to put himself in touch with men who think as 
he does, and to help make their joint influence felt 
in behalf of the powers that go for decency and 
good government. He must try to accomplish 
things ; he must not vote in the air unless it is really 
necessary. Occasionally a man must cast a "con- 
science vote," when there is no possibility of carry- 
ing to victory his principles or his nominees; at 



Morality and Efficiency 57 

times, indeed, this may be his highest duty ; but or- 
dinarily this is not the case. As a general rule a 
man ought to work and vote for something which 
there is at least a fair chance of putting into effect. 

Yet another thing to be remembered by the man 
who wishes to make his influence felt for good in 
our politics is that he must act purely as an Ameri- 
can. If he is not deeply imbued with the American 
spirit he can not succeed. Any organization which 
tries to work along the line of caste or creed, which 
fails to treat all American citizens on their merits 
as men, will fail, and will deserve to fail. Where 
our political life is healthy, there is and can be no 
room for any movement organized to help or to 
antagonize men because they do or do not profess 
a certain religion, or because they were or were not 
born here or abroad. We have a right to ask that 
those with whom we associate, and those for whom 
we vote, shall be themselves good Americans in 
heart and spirit, unhampered by adherence to for- 
eign ideals, and acting without regard to the national 
and religious prejudices of European countries; but 
if they really are good Americans in spirit and 
thought and purpose, that is all that we have any 
right to consider in regard to them. In the same way 
there must be no discrimination for or against any 
man because of his social standing. On the one side, 
there is nothing to be made out of a political or- 
ganization which draws an exclusive social line, and 
on the other it must be remembered that it is just as 
un-American to vote against a man because he is 



58 Morality and Efficiency 

rich as to vote against him because he is poor. The 
one man has just as much right as the other to claim 
to be treated purely on his merits as a man. In 
short, to do good work in politics, the men who or- 
ganize must organize wholly without regard to 
whether their associates were born here or abroad, 
whether they are Protestants or Catholics, Jews or 
Gentiles, whether they are bankers or butchers, pro- 
fessors or day-laborers. All that can rightly be 
asked of one's political associates is that they shall 
be honest men, good Americans and substantially 
in accord as regards their political ideas. 

Another thing that must not be forgotten by the 
man desirous of doing good political work is the 
need of the rougher, manlier virtues, and above all 
the virtue of personal courage, physical as well as 
moral. If w^e wish to do good work for our coun- 
try, we must be unselfish, disinterested, sincerely de- 
sirous of the well-being of the commonwealth, and 
capable of devoted adherence to a lofty ideal; but 
in addition we must be vigorous in mind and body, 
able to hold our own in rough conflict with our 
fellows, able to suffer punishment without flinch- 
ing, and, at need, to repay it in kind with full in- 
terest. A peaceful and commercial civilization is al- 
ways in danger of suffering the loss of the virile 
fighting qualities without which no nation, however 
cultured, however refined, however thrifty and pros- 
perous, can ever amount to anything. Every citi- 
zen should be taught, both in public and in private 
life, that while he must avoid brawling and quar- 



Morality and Efficiency 59 

reling, it is his duty to stand up for his rights. He 
must reahze that the only man who is more con- 
temptible than the blusterer and bully is the coward. 
No man is worth much to the commonwealth if he 
is not capable of feeling righteous wrath and just 
indignation, if he is not stirred to hot anger by mis- 
doing, and is not impelled to see justice meted out to 
the wrong-doers. No man is worth much any- 
where if he does not possess both moral and physical 
courage. A politician who really serves his country 
well, and deserves his country's gratitude, must usu- 
ally possess some of the hardy virtues which we ad- 
mire in the soldier who serves his country well in 
the field. 

An ardent young reformer is very apt to try to 
begin by reforming too much. He needs always to 
keep in mind that he has got to serve as a sergeant 
before he assumes the duties of commander-in-chief. 
It is right for him from the beginning to take a great 
interest in national. State, and municipal affairs, 
and to try to make himself felt in them if the occa- 
sion arises; but the best work must be done by the 
citizen working in his own ward or district. Let 
him associate himself with the men who think as 
he does, and who, like him, are sincerely devoted 
to the public good. Then let them try to make them- 
selves felt in the choice of alderman, of councilman, 
of Assemblyman. The politicians will be prompt to 
recognize their power, and the people will recognize 
it too, after a while. Let them organize and work, 
undaunted by any temporary defeat. If they fail 



6o Morality and Efficiency 

at first, and if they fail again, let them merely make 
up their minds to redouble their efforts, and per- 
haps alter their methods; but let them keep on 
working. 

It is sheer unmanliness and cowardice to shrink 
from the contest because at first there is failure, 
or because the work is difficult or repulsive. No 
man who is worth his salt has any right to abandon 
the effort to better our politics merely because he 
does not find it pleasant, merely because it entails 
associations which to him happen to be disagree- 
able. Let him keep right on, taking the buffets 
he gets good-humoredly, and repaying them with 
heartiness when the chance arises. Let him make 
up his mind that he will have to face the violent 
opposition of the spoils politician, and also, too 
often, the unfair and ungenerous criticism of those 
who ought to know better. Let him be careful 
not to show himself so thin-skinned as to mind 
either; let him fight his way forward, paying only 
so much regard to both as is necessary to enable 
him to win in spite of them. He may not, and 
indeed probably will not, accomplish nearly as much 
as he would like to, or as he thinks he ought to : 
but he will certainly accomplish something; and 
if he can feel that he has helped to elevate the 
type of representative sent to the municipal, the 
State, or the national legislature from his district, 
or to elevate the standard of duty among the pub- 
lic officials in his own ward, he has a right to be 
profoundly satisfied with what he has accomplished. 



Morality and Efficiency 6i 

Finally, there is one other matter which the man 
who tries to wake his fellows to higher political 
action would do well to ponder. It is a good thing 
to appeal to citizens to work for good government 
because it will better their estate materially, but 
it is a far better thing to appeal to them to work 
for good government because it is right in itself 
to do so. Doubtless, if we can have clean honest 
politics, we shall be better off in material matters. 
A thoroughly pure, upright, and capable adminis- 
tration of the affairs of New York City results in 
a very appreciable increase of comfort to each citi- 
zen. We should have better systems of transporta- 
tion; we should have cleaner streets, better sewers, 
and the like. But it is sometimes difficult to show 
the individual citizen that he will be individually 
better off in his business and in his home affairs 
for taking part in politics. I do not think it is 
always worth while to show that this will always 
be the case. The citizen should be appealed to 
primarily on the ground that it is his plain duty, 
if he wishes to deserve the name of freeman, to 
do his full share in the hard and difficult work of 
self-government. He must do his share unless he 
is willing to prove himself unfit for free institu- 
tions, fit only to live under a government where 
he will be plundered and bullied because he de^ 
serves to be plundered and bullied on account of 
his selfish timidity and short-sightedness. A clean 
and decent government is sure in the end to benefit 
our citizens in the material circumstances of their 



62 Morality and Efficiency 

lives; but each citizen should be appealed to, to 
take part in bettering our politics, not for the 
sake of any possible improvement it may bring 
to his affairs, but on the ground that it is his 
plain duty to do so, and that this is a duty which 
it is cowardly and dishonorable in him to shirk. 

To sum up, then, the men who wish to work 
for decent politics must work practically, and yet 
must not swerve from their devotion to a high 
ideal. They must actually do things, and not merely 
confine themselves to criticising those who do them. 
They must work disinterestedly, and appeal to the 
disinterested element in others, although they must 
also do work which will result in the material bet- 
terment of the community. They must act as Amer- 
icans through and through, in spirit and hope and 
purpose, and, while being disinterested, unselfish, 
and generous in their dealings with others, they 
must also show that they possess the essential 
manly virtues of energy, of resolution, and of in- 
domitable personal courage. 



IV 



THE COLLEGE GRADUATE AND PUBLIC 

LIFE* 

THERE are always, in our national life, certain 
tendencies that give us ground for alarm, 
and certain others that give us ground for hope. 
Among the latter we must put the fact that there 
has undoubtedly been a growing feeling among 
educated men that they are in honor bound to do 
their full share of the work of American public life. 
We have in this country an equality of rights. 
It is the plain duty of every man to see that his 
rights are respected. That weak good-nature which 
acquiesces in wrongdoing, whether from laziness, 
timidity, or indifference, is a very unwholesome 
quality. It should be second nature with every 
man to insist that he be given full justice. But if 
there is an equality of rights, there is an inequality 
of duties. It is proper to demand more from the 
man with exceptional advantages than from the 
man without them. A heavy moral obligation 
rests upon the man of means and upon the man 
of education to do their full duty by their country. 
On no class does this obligation rest more heavily 
than upon the men with a collegiate education, the 

* Atlantic Monthly, August, 1894. 

(63) 



64 Colleges and Public Life 

men who are graduates of our universities. Their 
education gives them no right to feel the least 
superiority over any of their fellow-citizens; but 
it certainly ought to make them feel that they should 
stand foremost in the honorable effort to serve the 
whole public by doing their duty as Americans in 
the body politic. This obligation very possibly rests 
even more heavily upon the men of means; but of 
this it is not necessary now to speak. The men 
of mere wealth never can have and never should 
have the capacity for doing good work that is pos- 
sessed by the men of exceptional mental training; 
but that they may become both a laughing-stock 
and a menace to the community is made unpleas- 
antly apparent by that portion of the New York 
business and social world which is most in evidence 
in the newspapers. 

To the great body of men who have had excep- 
tional advantages in the way of educational facili- 
ties we have a right, then, to look for good service 
to the State. The service may be rendered in many 
different ways. In a reasonable number of cases, 
the man may himself rise to high political position. 
That men actually do so rise is shown by the num- 
ber of graduates of Harvard, Yale, and our other 
universities who are now taking a prominent part 
in public life. These cases must necessarily, how- 
ever, form but a small part of the whole. The 
enormous majority of our educated men have to 
make their own living, and are obliged to take up 
careers in which they must work heart and soul 



Colleges and Public Life 65 

to succeed. Nevertheless, the man of business and 
the man of science, the doctor of divinity and the 
doctor of law, the architect, the engineer, and the 
writer, all alike owe a positive duty to the com- 
munity, the neglect of which they can not excuse 
on any plea of their private affairs. They are 
bound to follow understandingly the course of 
public events; they are bound to try to estimate 
and form judgment upon public men; and they are 
bound to act intelligently and effectively in support 
of the principles which they deem to be right and 
for the best interests of the country. 

The most important thing for this class of edu- 
cated men to realize is that they do not really form 
a class at all. I have used the word in default of 
another, but I have merely used it roughly to 
group together people who have had unusual op- 
portunities of a certain kind. A large number of 
the people to whom these opportunities are offered 
fail to take advantage of them, and a very much 
larger number of those to whom they have not 
been offered succeed none the less in making them 
for themselves. An educated man must not go into 
politics as such ; he must go in simply as an Ameri- 
can; and when he is once in, he will speedily real- 
ize that he must work very hard indeed, or he 
will be upset by some other American, with no 
education at all, but with much natural capacity. 
His education ought to make him feel particularly 
ashamed of himself if he acts meanly or dishonor- 
ably, or in any way falls short of the ideal of good 



66 Colleges and Public Life 

citizenship, and it ought to make him feel that he 
must show that he has profited by it ; but it should 
certainly give him no feeling of superiority until 
by actual work he has shown that superiority. In 
other words, the educated man must realize that 
he is living in a democracy and under democratic 
conditions, and that he is entitled to no more re- 
spect and consideration than he can win by actual 
performance. 

This must be steadily kept in mind not only by 
educated men themselves, but particularly by the 
men who give the tone to our great educational 
institutions. These educational institutions, if they 
are to do their best work, must strain every effort 
to keep their life in touch with the life of the na- 
tion at the present day. This is necessary for the 
country, but it is very much more necessary for 
the educated men themselves. It is a misfortune 
for any land if its people of cultivation take little 
part in shaping its destiny; but the misfortune is 
far greater for the people of cultivation. The coun- 
try has a right to demand the honest and efficient 
service of every man in it, but especially of every 
man who has had the advantage of rigid mental 
and moral training; the country is so much the 
poorer when any class of honest men fail to do 
their duty by it; but the loss to the class itself is 
immeasurable. If our educated men as a whole 
become incapable of playing their full part in our 
life, if they cease doing their share of the rough, 
hard work which must be done, and grow to take 



Colleges and Public Life 67 

a position of mere dilettanteism in our public af- 
fairs, they will speedily sink in relation to their 
fellows who really do the work of g-overning, until 
they stand toward them as a cultivated, ineffective 
man with a taste for bric-a-brac stands toward a 
great artist. When once a body of citizens becomes 
thoroughly out of touch and out of temper with 
the national life, its usefulness is gone, and its 
power of leaving its mark on the times is gone also. 
The first great lesson which the college graduate 
should learn is the lesson of work rather than of 
criticism. Criticism is necessary and useful; it is 
often indispensable ; but it can never take the place 
of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The 
function of the mere critic is of very subordinate 
usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually 
counts in the battle for life, and not the man who 
looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, 
without himself sharing the stress and the danger. 
There is, however, a need for proper critical 
work. Wrongs should be strenuously and fearlessly 
denounced; evil principles and evil men should be 
condemned. The politician who cheats or swindles, 
or the newspaper man who lies in any form, should 
be made to feel that he is an object of scorn for 
all honest men. We need fearless criticism; but 
we need that it should also be intelligent. At 
present, the man who is most apt to regard himself 
as an intelligent critic of our political affairs is 
often the man who knows nothing whatever about 
them. Criticism which is ignorant or prejudiced 



/ 



68 Colleges and Public Life 

is a source of great harm to the nation ; and where 
ignorant or prejudiced critics are themselves edu- 
cated men, their attitude does real harm also to 
the class to which they belong. 

The tone of a portion of the press of the country 
toward public men, and especially toward political 
opponents, is degrading, all forms of coarse and 
noisy slander being apparently considered legitimate 
weapons to employ against men of the opposite 
party or faction. Unfortunately, not a few of the 
journals that pride themselves upon being inde- 
pendent in politics, and the organs of cultivated 
men, betray the same characteristics in a less coarse 
but quite as noxious form. All these journals do 
great harm by accustoming good citizens to see 
their public men, good and bad, assailed indis- 
criminately as scoundrels. The effect is twofold: 
the citizen learning, on the one hand, to disbelieve 
any statement he sees in any newspaper, so that the 
attacks on evil lose their edge; and on the other, 
gradually acquiring a deep-rooted belief that all 
public men are more or less bad. In consequence, 
his political instinct becomes hopelessly blurred, and 
he grows unable to tell the good representative from 
the bad. The worst offence that can be committed 
against the Republic is the offence of the public man 
who betrays his trust; but second only to it comes 
the offence of the man who tries to persuade others 
that an honest and efficient public man is dishonest 
or unworthy. This is a wrong that can be com- 
mitted in a great many different ways. Downright 



Colleges and Public Life ^69 

foul abuse may be, after all, less dangerous than 
incessant misstatements, sneers, and those half-truths 
that are the meanest lies. 

For educated men of weak fibre, there lies a reat 
danger in that species of literary work which ap- 
peals to their cultivated senses because of its scholar- 
ly and pleasant tone, but which enjoins as the proper 
attitude to assume in public life one of mere criti- 
cism and negation ; which teaches the adoption to- 
ward public men and public affairs of that sneering 
tone which so surely denotes a mean and small 
mind. If a man does not have belief and enthu- 
siasm, the chances are small indeed that he will ever 
do a man's work in the world ; and the paper or the 
college which, by its general course, tends to eradi- 
cate this power of belief and enthusiasm, this desire 
for work, has rendered to the young men under its 
influence the worst service it could possibly render. 
Good can often be done by criticising sharply and 
severely the wrong ; but excessive indulgence in crit- 
icism is never anything but bad, and no amount of 
criticism can in any way take the place of active and 
zealous warfare for the riHit 

Again, there is a certain tendency in college life, 
a tendency encouraged by some of the very papers 
referred to, to make educated men shrink from con- 
tact with the rough people who do the world's work, 
and associate only with one another and with those 
who think as they do. This is a most dangerous 
tendency. It is very agreeable to deceive one's self 
into the belief that one is performing the whole duty 



yo Colleges and Public Life 

of man by sitting at home in ease, doing nothing 
wrong, and confining one's participation in poHtics 
to conversations and meetings with men who have 
had the same training and look at things in the same 
way. It is always a temptation to do this, because 
those who do nothing else often speak as if in some 
way they deserved credit for their attitude, and as 
if they stood above their brethren who plow the 
rough fields. Moreover, many people whose politi- 
cal work is done more or less after this fashion are 
very noble and very sincere in their aims and aspi- 
rations, and are striving for what is best and most 
decent in public life. 

Nevertheless, this is a snare round which it be- 
hooves every young man to walk carefully. Let 
him beware of associating only with the people of 
his own caste and of his own little ways of political 
thought. Let him learn that he must deal with the 
mass of men ; that he must go out and stand shoul- 
der to shoulder with his friends of every rank, and 
face to face with his foes of every rank, and must 
bear himself well in the hurly-burly. He must not 
be frightened by the many unpleasant features of 
the contest, and he must not expect to have it all 
his own way, or to accomplish too much. He will 
meet with checks and will make many mistakes; 
but if he perseveres, he will achieve a measure of 
success and will do a measure of good such as is 
never possible to the refined, cultivated, intellectual 
men who shrink aside from the actual fray. 

Yet again, college men must learn to be as prac- 



Colleges and Public Life 71 

tical in politics as they would be in business or in law. 
It is surely unnecessary to say that by "practical" I 
do not mean anything that savors in the least of dis- 
honesty. On the contrary, a college man is pe- 
culiarly bound to keep a high ideal and to be true 
to it; but he must work in practical ways to try to 
realize this ideal, and must not refuse to do any- 
thing because he can not get everything. One espe- 
cially necessary thing is to know the facts by actual 
experience, and not to take refuge in mere theoriz- 
ing. There are always a number of excellent and 
well-meaning men whom we grow to regard with 
amused impatience because they waste all their en- 
ergies on some -visionary scheme which, even if it 
were not visionary, would be useless. When they 
come to deal with political questions, these men are 
apt to err from sheer lack of familiarity with the 
workings of our government. No man ever really 
learned from books how to manage a governmental 
system. Books are admirable adjuncts, and the 
statesman who has carefully studied them is far 
more apt to do good work than if he had not; but 
if he has never done anything but study books he 
will not be a statesman at all. Thus, every young 
politician should of course read the "Federalist." 
It is the greatest book of the kind that has ever been 
written. Hamilton, Madison, and Jay would have 
been poorly equipped for writing it if they had not 
possessed an extensive acquaintance with literature, 
and in particular if they had not been careful stu- 
dents of political literature; but the great cause of 



72 Colleges and Public Life 

the value of their writings lay in the fact that they 
knew by actual work and association what practical 
politics meant. They had helped to shape the po- 
litical thought of the country, and to do its legis- 
lative and executive work, and so they were in a 
condition to speak understandingly about it. For 
similar reasons, Mr. Bryce's "American Common- 
wealth" has a value possessed by no other book of 
the kind, largely because Mr. Bryce is himself an 
active member of Parliament, a man of good stand- 
ing and some leadership in his own party, and a 
practical politician. In the same way, a life of 
Washington by Cabot Lodge, a sketch of Lincoln 
by Carl Schurz, a biography of Pitt by Lord Rose- 
bery, have an added value because of the writers' 
own work in politics. 

It is always a pity to see men fritter away their 
energies on any pointless scheme; and, unfortu- 
nately, a good many of our educated people when 
they come to deal with politics do just such fritter- 
ing. Take, for instance, the queer freak of argu- 
ing in favor of establishing what its advocates are 
pleased to call "responsible government" in our 
institutions, or, in other words, of grafting certain 
features of the English parliamentary system upon 
our own Presidential and Congressional system. 
This agitation was too largely deficient in body to 
enable it to last, and it has now, I think, died away ; 
but at one time quite a number of our men who 
spoke of themselves as students of political history 
were engaged in treating this scheme as something 



Colleges and Public Life 73 

serious. Few men who had ever taken an active 
part in politics, or who had studied politics in the 
way that a doctor is expected to study surgery and 
medicine, so much as gave it a thought; but very 
intelligent men did, just because they were misdi- 
recting their energies, and were wholly ignorant that 
they ought to know practically about a problem be- 
fore they attempted its solution. The English, or 
so-called "responsible," theory of parliamentary 
government is one entirely incompatible with our 
own governmental institutions. It could not be 
put into operation here save by absolutely sweeping 
away the United States Constitution. Incidentally, 
I may say it would be to the last degree undesir- 
able, if it were practicable. But this is not the point 
upon which I wish to dwell ; the point is that it was 
wholly impracticable to put it into operation, and 
that an agitation favoring this kind of government 
was from its nature unintelligent. The people who 
wrote about it wasted their time, whereas they could 
have spent it to great advantage had they seriously 
studied our institutions and sought to devise prac-" 
ticable and desirable methods of increasing and cen- 
tring genuine responsibility — for all thinking men 
agree that there is an undoubted need for a change 
in this direction. 

But of course much of the best work that has 
been done in the field of political study has been 
done by men who were not active politicians, though 
they were careful and painstaking students of the 
phenomena of politics. The back numbers of our 
4 Vol. I. 



74 Colleges and Public Life 

leading magazines afford proof of this. Certain of 
the governmental essays by such writers as Mr. 
Lawrence Lowell and Professor A. B. Hart, and 
especially such books as that on the "Speaker's 
Powers and Duties," by Miss Follet, have been 
genuine and vahiable contributions to our political 
thought. These essays have been studied carefully 
not only by scholars, but by men engaged in prac- 
tical politics, because they were written with good 
judgment and keen insight after careful investiga- 
tion of the facts, and so deserved respectful attention. 
It is a misfortune for any people when the paths 
of the practical and the theoretical politicians di- 
verge so widely that they have no common standing- 
ground. When the Greek thinkers began to devote 
their attention to purely visionary politics of the kind 
found in Plato's ''Republic," while the Greek prac- 
tical politicians simply exploited the quarrelsome 
little commonwealths in their own interests, then the 
end of Greek liberty was at hand. No government 
that can not command the respectful support of the 
best thinkers is in an entirely sound condition; but 
it is well to keep in mind the remark of Frederick 
the Great, that if he wished to punish a province, he 
would allow it to be governed by the philosophers. 
It is a great misfortune for the country when the 
practical politician and the doctrinaire have no point 
in common, but the misfortune is, if anything, great- 
est for the doctrinaire. The ideal to be set before the 
student of politics and the practical politician alike 
is the ideal of the ''Federalist." Each man should 



Colleges and Public Life 75 

realize that he can not do his best, either in the 
study of politics or in applied politics unless he has 
a working knowledge of both branches. A limited 
number of people can do work by the careful study 
of govermental institutions, but they can do it only 
if they have themselves a practical knowledge of the 
workings of these institutions. A very large num- 
ber of people, on the other hand, may do excellent 
work in politics without much theoretic knowledge 
of the subject; but without this knowledge they can 
not rise to the highest rank, while in any rank their 
capacity to do good work will be immensely increased 
if they have such knowledge. 

There are certain other qualities, about which 
it is hardly necessary to speak. If an educated man 
is not heartily American in instinct and feeling and 
taste and sympathy, he will amount to nothing in 
our public life. Patriotism, love of country, and 
pride in the flag which symbolizes country may be 
feelings which the race will at some period outgrow, 
but at present they are very real and strong, and the 
man who lacks them is a useless creature, a mere 
incumbrance to the land. 

A man of sound political instincts can no more 
subscribe to the doctrine of absolute independence 
of party on the one hand than to that of unquestion- 
ing party allegiance on the other. No man can ac- 
complish much unless he works in an organization 
with others, and this organization, no matter how 
temporary, is a party for the time being. But that 
man is a dangerous citizen who so far mistakes 



76 Colleges and Public Life 

means for ends as to become servile in his devotion to 
his party, and afraid to leave it when the party goes 
wrong. To deify either independence or party alle- 
giance merely as such is a little absurd. It depends 
entirely upon the motive, the purpose, the result. 
For the last two years, the Senator who, beyond all 
his colleagues in the United States Senate, has shown 
himself independent of party ties is the very man to 
whom the leading champions of independence in 
politics most strenuously object. The truth is, sim- 
ply, that there are times when it may be the duty of 
a man to break with his party, and there are other 
times when it may be his duty to stand by his party, 
even though, on some points, he thinks that party 
wrong ; he must be prepared to leave it when neces- 
sary, and he must not sacrifice his influence by leav- 
ing it unless it is necessary. If we had no party 
allegiance, our politics would become mere windy 
anarchy, and, under present conditions, our gov- 
ernment could hardly continue at all. If we had 
no independence, we should always be running the 
risk of the most degraded kind of despotism, — the 
despotism of the party boss and the party machine. 
It is just the same way about compromises. Oc- 
casionally one hears some well-meaning person say 
of another, apparently in praise, that he is "never 
willing to compromise." It is a mere truism to say 
that, in politics, there has to be one continual com- 
promise. Of course now and then questions arise 
upon which a compromise is inadmissible. There 
could be no compromise with secession, and there 



Colleges and Public Life ']^ 

was none. There should be no avoidable compro- 
mise about any great moral question. But only a 
few great reforms or great measures of any kind can 
be carried through without concession. No student 
of American history needs to be reminded that the 
Constitution itself is a bundle of compromises, and 
was adopted only because of this fact, and that the 
same thing is true of the Emancipation Proclamation. 
In conclusion, then, the man with a university 
education is in honor bound to take an active part 
in our political life, and to do his full duty as a 
citizen by helping his fellow-citizens to the extent 
of his power in the exercise of the rights of self- 
government. He is bound to rank action far above 
criticism, and to understand that the man deserving 
of credit is the man who actually does the things, 
even though imperfectly, and not the man who con- 
fines himself to talking about how they ought to be 
done. He is bound to have a high ideal and to strive 
to realize it, and yet he must make up his mind 
that he will never be able to get the highest good, 
and that he must devote himself with all his energy 
to getting the best that he can. Finally, his work 
must be disinterested and honest, and it must be 
given without regard to his own success or failure, 
and without regard to the effect it has upon his own 
fortunes ; and while he must show the virtues of up- 
rightness and tolerance and gentleness, he must also 
show the sterner virtues of courage, resolution, and 
hardihood, and the desire to war with merciless 
effectiveness against the existence of wrong. 



V 
PHASES OF STATE LEGISLATION* 

THE ALBANY LEGISLATURE 

FEW persons realize the magnitude of the inter- 
ests affected by State legislation in New York. 
It is no mere figure of speech to call New York the 
Empire State; and many of the laws most directly 
and immediately affecting the interests of its citi- 
zens are passed at Albany, and not at Washington. 
In fact, there is at Albany a little home rule parlia- 
ment which presides over the destinies of a com- 
monwealth more populous than any one of two- 
thirds of the kingdoms of Europe, and one which, 
in point of wealth, material prosperity, variety of 
interests, extent of territory, and capacity for ex- 
pansion, can fairly be said to rank next to the pow- 
ers of the first class. This little parliament, com- 
posed of one hundred and twenty-eight members in 
the Assembly and thirty-two in the Senate, is, in 
the fullest sense of the term, a representative body; 
there is hardly one of the many and widely diversi- 
fied interests of the State that has not a mouthpiece 
at Albany, and hardly a single class of its citizens 
— not even excepting, I regret to say, the criminal 
class — which lacks its representative among the leg- 
islators. In the three Legislatures of which I have 

* The Century, January, 1885. 
(78) 



State Legislation 79 

been a member, I have sat with bankers and brick- 
layers, with merchants and mechanics, with lawyers, 
farmers, day - laborers, saloon - keepers, clergymen, 
and prize-fighters. Among my colleagues there 
were many very good men; there was a still more 
numerous class of men who were neither very 
good nor very bad, but went one way or the other, 
according to the strength of the various conflicting 
influences acting around, behind, and upon them; 
and, finally, there were many very bad men. Still, 
the New York Legislature, taken as a whole, is 
by no means as bad a body as we would be led to 
believe if our judgment was based purely on what 
we read in the great metropolitan papers ; for the 
custom of the latter is to portray things as either 
very much better or very much worse than they are. 
Where a number of men, many of them poor, some 
of them unscrupulous, and others elected by con- 
stituents too ignorant to hold them to a proper ac- 
countability for their actions, are put into a position 
of great temporary power, where they are called to 
take action upon questions affecting the welfare of 
large corporations and wealthy private individuals, 
the chances for corruption are always great; and 
that there is much viciousness and political dis- 
honesty, much moral cowardice, and a good deal 
of actual bribe-taking in Albany, no one who has 
had any practical experience of legislation can doubt; 
but, at the same time, I think that the good members 
generally outnumber the bad, and that there is not 
often doubt as to the result when a naked question 



8o State Legislation 

of right or wrong- can be placed clearly and in its 
true light before the Legislature. The trouble is 
that on many questions the Legislature never does 
have the right and wrong clearly shown it. Either 
some bold, clever parhamentary tactician snaps the 
measure through before the members are aware 
of its nature, or else the obnoxious features are 
so combined with good ones as to procure the sup- 
port of a certain proportion of that large class 
of men whose intentions are excellent, but whose in- 
tellects are foggy. Or else the necessary party or- 
ganization, which we call the "machine," uses its 
great power for some definite evil aim. 

THE CHARACTER OF THE REPRESENTATIVES 

The representatives from different sections of the 
State differ widely in character. Those from the 
country districts are generally very good men. They 
are usually well-to-do farmers, small lawyers, or 
prosperous storekeepers, and are shrewd, quiet, and 
honest. They are often narrow-minded and slow to 
receive an idea; but, on the other hand, when they 
get a good one, they cling to it with the utmost 
tenacity. They form very much the most valu- 
able class of legislators. For the most part they 
are native Americans, and those who are not are 
men who have become completely Americanized in 
all their ways and habits of thought. One of the 
most useful members of the last Legislature was 
a German from a western county, and the extent 
of his Americanization can be judged from the fact 



State Legislation 8i 

that he was actually an ardent prohibitionist: cer- 
tainly no one who knows Teutonic human nature 
will require further proof. Again, I sat for an en- 
tire session beside a very intelligent member from 
northern New York before I discovered that he was 
an Irishman : all his views of legislation, even upon 
such subjects as free schools and the impropriety 
of making appropriations from the treasury for the 
support of sectarian institutions, were precisely sim- 
ilar to those of his Protestant-American neighbors, 
though he was himself a Catholic. Now a German 
or an Irishman from one of the great cities would 
probably have retained many of his national pe- 
culiarities. 

It is from these same great cities that the worst 
legislators come. It is true that there are always 
among them a few cultivated and scholarly men 
who are well educated, and who stand on a higher 
and broader intellectual and moral plane than the 
country members, but the bulk are very low indeed. 
They are usually foreigners of little or no edu- 
cation, with exceedingly misty ideas as to morality, 
and possessed of an ignorance so profound that it 
could only be called comic, were it not for the fact 
that it has at times such serious effects upon our 
laws. It is their ignorance, quite as much as actual 
viciousness, which makes it so difficult to procure 
the passage of good laws or prevent the passage of 
bad ones ; and it is the most irritating of the many 
elements with which we have to contend in the fight 
for good government. 



82 State Legislation 

DARK SIDE OF THE LEGISLATIVE PICTURE 

Mention has been made above of the bribe- 
taking which undoubtedly at times occurs in the 
New York Legislature. This is what is commonly 
called "a delicate subject" with which to deal, 
and, therefore, according to our usual methods of 
handling delicate subjects, it is either never dis- 
cussed at all, or else discussed with the grossest 
exaggeration ; but most certainly there is nothing 
about which it is more important to know the 
truth. 

In each of the last three Legislatures there were 
a number of us who were interested in getting 
through certain measures which we deemed to be 
for the public good, but which were certain to be 
strongly opposed, some for political and some for 
pecuniary reasons. Now, to get through any such 
measure requires genuine hard work, a certain 
amount of parliamentary skill, a good deal of tact 
and courage, and above all, a thorough knowledge 
of the men with whom one has to deal, and of the 
motives which actuate them. In other words, be- 
fore taking any active steps, we had to "size up" our 
fellow-legislators, to find out their past history and 
present character and associates, to find out whether 
they were their own masters or were acting under 
the directions of somebody else, whether they were 
bright or stupid, etc., etc. As a result, and after 
very careful study, conducted purely with the ob- 
ject of learning the truth, so that we might work 
more effectually, we came to the conclusion that 



State Legislation 83 

about a third of the members were open to corrupt 
influences in some form or other ; in certain sessions 
the proportion was greater, and in some less. Now 
it would, of course, be impossible for me or for any 
one else to prove in a court of law that these men 
were giiilty, except perhaps in two or three cases; 
yet we felt absolutely confident that there was 
hardly a case in which our judgment as to the hon- 
esty of any given member was not correct. The two 
or three exceptional cases alluded to, where legal 
proof of guilt might have been forthcoming, were 
mstances in which honest men were approached by 
their colleagues at times when the need for votes 
was very great ; but, even then, it would have been 
almost impossible to punish the offender before a 
court, for it would have merely resulted in his de- 
nying what his accuser stated. Moreover, the mem- 
bers who had been approached would have been very 
reluctant to come forward, for each of them felt 
ashamed that his character should not have been 
well enough known to prevent any one's daring 
to speak to him on such a subject. And another 
reason why the few honest men who are approached 
(for the lobbyist rarely makes a mistake in his es- 
timate of the men who will be apt to take bribes) do 
not feel like taking action in the matter is that a 
doubtful lawsuit will certainly follow, which will 
drag on so long that the public will come to regard 
all of the participants with equal distrust, while in 
the end the decision is quite as likely to be against 
as to be for them. Take the Bradley-Sessions case, 



84 State Legislation 

for example. This was an incident that occurred 
at the time of the faction-%ht in the Republican 
ranks over the return of Mr. Conkling to the United 
States Senate after his resignation from that body. 
Bradley, an Assemblyman, accused Sessions, a State 
Senator, of attempting to bribe him. The affair 
dragged on for an indefinite time; no one was able 
actually to determine whether it was a case of black- 
mail on the one hand, or of bribery on the other ; the 
vast majority of people recollected the names of 
both parties, but totally forgot which it was that 
was supposed to have bribed the other, and regarded 
both with equal disfavor; and the upshot has been 
that the case is now merely remembered as illustrat- 
ing one of the most unsavory phases of the once- 
famous Half-breed-Stalwart fight. 

DIFFICULTIES OF PREVENTING AND PUNISHING 

CORRUPTION 

From the causes indicated, it is almost impossible 
to actually convict a legislator of bribe-taking; but 
at the same time, the character of a legislator, if 
bad. soon becomes a matter of common notoriety, 
and no dishonest legislator can long keep his repu- 
tation good with honest men. If the constituents 
wish to know the character of their member, they 
can easily find it out, and no member will be dis- 
honest if he thinks his constituents are looking at 
him ; he presuxnes upon their ignorance or indif- 
ference. I do not see how bribe-taking among leg- 
islators can be stopped until the public conscience 



State Legislation 85 

becomes awake to the matter. Then it will stop 
fast enough; for just as soon as politicians realize 
that the people are in earnest in wanting a thing 
done, they make haste to do it. The trouble is 
always in rousing the people sufficiently to make 
them take an effective interest, — that is, in making 
them sufficiently in earnest to be willing to give 
a little of their time to the accomplishment of the 
object they have in view. 

Much the largest percentage of corrupt legislators 
come from the great cities; indeed, the majority of 
the Assemblymen from the great cities are "very 
poor specimens" indeed, while, on the contrary, 
the Congressmen who go from them are generally 
pretty good men. This fact is only one of the many 
which go to establish the curious political law that 
in a great city the larger the constituency which 
elects a public servant, the more apt that servant is 
to be a good one; exactly as the Mayor is almost 
certain to be infinitely superior in character to the 
average alderman, or the average city judge to the 
average civil justice. This is because the public 
servants of comparatively small importance are 
protected by their own insignificance from the 
consequences of their bad actions. Life is carried 
on at such a high pressure in the great cities, men's 
time is so fully occupied by their manifold and ha- 
rassing interests and duties, and their knowledge of 
their neighbors is necessarily so limited, that they 
are only able to fix in their minds the characters 
and records of a few prominent men; the others 



86 State Legislation 

tliey lump together without distinguishing between 
individuals. They know whether the aldermen, as 
a body, are to be admired or despised; but they 
probably do not even know the name, far less the 
worth, of the particular alderman who represents 
their district; so it happens that their votes for al- 
dermen or Assemblymen are generally given with 
very little intelHgence indeed, while, on the con- 
trary, they are fully competent to pass and execute 
judgment upon as prominent an official as a Mayor 
or even a Congressman. Hence it follows that the 
latter have to give a good deal of attention to the 
wishes and prejudices of the public at large, while 
a city Assemblyman, though he always talks a great 
deal about the people, rarely, except in certain ex- 
traordinary cases, has to pay much heed to their 
wants. His political future depends far more upon 
the skill and success with which he cultivates the 
good-will of certain "bosses," or of certain cliques 
of politicians, or even of certain bodies and knots 
of men (such as compose a trade-union, or a col- 
lection of merchants in some special business, or 
the managers of a railroad) whose interests, being 
vitally affected by Albany legislation, oblige them 
closely to watch, and to try to punish or reward, 
the Albany legislators. These politicians or sets of 
interested individuals generally care very little for 
a man's honesty so long as he can be depended upon 
to do as they wish on certain occasions ; and hence 
it often happens that a dishonest man who has sense 
enough not to excite attention by any flagrant out- 



State Legislation 87 

rage may continue for a number of years to repre- 
sent an honest constituency. 

THE CONSTITUENTS LARGELY TO BLAME 

Moreover, a member from a large city can often 
count upon the educated and intelligent men of his 
district showing the most gross ignorance and stu- 
pidity in political affairs. The much-lauded intelli- 
gent voter — the man of cultured mind, liberal edu- 
cation, and excellent intentions — at times performs 
exceedingly queer antics. 

The great public meetings to advance certain po- 
litical movements irrespective of party, which have 
been held so frequently during the past few years, 
have undoubtedly done a vast amount of good ; but 
the very men who attend these public meetings and 
inveigh against the folly and wickedness of the poli- 
ticians will sometimes on election day do things 
which have quite as evil effects as any of the acts 
of the men whom they very properly condemn. A 
recent instance of this is worth giving. In 1882 
there was in the Assembly a young member from 
New York, who did as hard and effective work for 
the City of New York as has ever been done by 
any one. It was a peculiarly disagreeable year to be 
in the Legislature. The composition of that body 
was unusually bad. The more disreputable politi- 
cians relied upon it to pass some of their schemes 
and to protect certain of their members from the 
consequences of their own misdeeds. Demagogic 
measures were continually brought forward, nomi- 



88 . State Legislation 

nally in the interests of the laboring classes, for 
which an honest and intelligent man could not vote, 
and yet which were jealously watched by, and re- 
ceived the hearty support of, not merely demagogues 
and agitators, but also a large number of per- 
fectly honest though misguided workingmen. And, 
finally, certain wealthy corporations attempted, by 
the most unscrupulous means, to rush through a 
number of laws in their own interest. The young 
member of whom we are speaking incurred by his 
course on these various measures the bitter hos- 
tility alike of the politicians, the demagogues, and 
the members of that most dangerous of all classes, 
the wealthy criminal class. He had also earned the 
gratitude of all honest citizens, and he got it — as far 
as words went. The better class of newspapers 
spoke well of him; cultured and intelligent men 
generally — the well-to-do, prosperous people who 
belong to the different social and literary clubs, and 
their followers — were loud in his praise. I call to 
mind one man who lived in his district who ex- 
pressed great indignation that the politicians should 
dare to oppose his re-election ; when told that it was 
to be hoped he would help to ensure the legislator's 
return to Albany by himself staying at the polls 
all day, he answered that he was very sorry, but 
he unfortunately had an engagement to go quail- 
shooting on election day ! Most respectable people, 
however, would imdoubtedly have voted for and 
re-elected the young member had it not been for the 
unexpected political movements that took place in 



State Legislation 89 

the fall. A citizen's ticket, largely non-partisan in 
character, was run for certain local offices, receiving 
its support from among those who claimed to be, 
and who undoubtedly were, the best men of both 
parties. The ticket contained the names of candi- 
dates only for municipal offices, and had nothing 
whatever to do with the election of men to the Leg- 
islature; yet it proved absolutely impossible to drill 
this simple fact through the heads of a great many 
worthy people, who, when election day came round, 
declined to vote anything but the citizens' ticket, 
and persisted in thinking that if no legislative can- 
didate was on the ticket, it was because, for some 
reason or other, the citizens' committee did not con- 
sider any legislative candidate worth voting for. All 
over the city the better class of candidates for legis- 
lative offices lost from this cause votes which they 
had a right to expect, and in the particular district 
under consideration the loss was so great as to 
cause the defeat of the sitting member, or rather 
to elect him by so narrow a vote as to enable an 
unscrupulously partisan legislative majority to keep 
him out of his seat. 

It is this kind of ignorance of the simplest po- 
litical matters among really good citizens, combined 
with their timidity, which is so apt to characterize 
a wealthy bourgeoisie, and, with their short-sighted 
selfishness in being unwilling to take the smallest 
portion of time away from their business or pleas- 
ure to devote to public affairs, which renders it 
so easy for corrupt men from the city to keep 



90 State Legislation 

their places in the Legislature. In the country the 
case is different. Here the constituencies, who are 
usually composed of honest though narrow-minded 
and bigoted individuals, generally keep a pretty 
sharp lookout on their members, and, as already 
said, the latter are apt to be fairly honest men. 
Even when they are not honest, they take good 
care to act perfectly well as regards all district 
matters, for most of the measures about which cor- 
rupt influences are at work relate to city affairs. 
The constituents of a country member know well 
how to judge him for those of his acts which im- 
mediately affect themselves; but as regards others 
they often have no means of forming an opinion, 
except through the newspapers, — more especially 
througli the great metropolitan newspapers, — and 
they have gradually come to look upon all state- 
ments made by the latter with reference to the 
honesty or dishonesty of public men with extreme 
distrust. This is because our newspapers, includ- 
ing those who professedly stand as representatives 
of the highest culture of the community, have been 
in the habit of making such constant and reckless 
assaults upon the characters of even very good 
public men, as to greatly detract from their in- 
fluence when they attack one who is really bad. 
They paint every one with whom they disagree 
black. As a consequence the average man, who 
knows they are panly wrong, thinks they may also 
be partly right; he concludes that no man is abso- 
lutely white, and at the same time that no one 



State Legislation 91 

is as black as he is painted; and takes refuge in 
the belief that all alike are gray. It then becomes 
impossible to rouse him to make an effort either 
for a good man or against a scoundrel. Nothing 
helps dishonest politicians as much as this feeling; 
and among the chief instruments in its production 
we must number certain of our newspapers who are 
loudest in asserting that they stand on the highest 
moral plane. As for the other newspapers, those 
of frankly "sensationar' character, such as the two 
which at present claim to have the largest circula- 
tion in New York, there is small need to character- 
ize them; they form a very great promotive to 
public corruption and private vice, and are on the 
whole the most potent of all the forces for evil 
which are at work in the city. 

PERILS OF LEGISLATIVE LIFE 

However, there can be no question that a great 
many men do deteriorate very much morally when 
they go to Albany. The last accusation most of us 
would think of bringing against that dear, dull, 
old Dutch city is that of being a fast place; and 
yet there are plenty of members coming from out- 
of-the-way villages or quiet country towns on whom 
Albany has as bad an effect as Paris sometimes 
has on wealthy young Americans from the great 
seaboard cities. Many men go to the Legislature 
with the set purpose of making money; but many 
others, who afterward become bad, go there in- 
tending to do good work. These latter may be 



92 State Legislation 

well-meaning, weak young fellows of some shallow 
brightness, who expect to make names for them- 
selves; perhaps they are young lawyers, or real- 
estate brokers, or small shopkeepers; they achieve 
but little success; they gradually become conscious 
that their business is broken up, and that they have 
not enough ability to warrant any expectation of 
their continuing in public life; some great tempta- 
tion comes in their way (a corporation which es- 
pects to be relieved of perhaps a million dollars 
of taxes by the passage of a bill can afford to pay 
high for voters) ; they fall, and that is the end of 
them. Indeed, legislative life has temptations enough 
to make it unadvisable for any weak man, whether 
young or old, to enter it. 

ALLIES OF VICIOUS LEGISLATORS 

The array of vicious legislators is swelled by 
a number of men who really at bottom are not 
bad. Foremost among these are those most hope- 
less of beings who are handicapped by having 
some measure which they consider it absolutely 
necessary for the sake of their own future to "get 
through." One of these men will have a bill, for 
instance, appropriating a sum of money from the 
State Treasury to clear out a river, dam the out- 
let of a lake, or drain a marsh ; it may be, although 
not usually so, proper enough in itself, but it is 
drawn up primarily in the interest of a certain 
set of his constituents who have given him clearly 
to understand that his continuance in their good 



State Legislation 93 

graces depends upon his success in passing the 
bill. He feels that he must get it through at all 
hazards; the bad men find this out, and tell him 
he must count on their opposition unless he con- 
sents also to help their measures; he resists at first 
but sooner or later yields; and from that moment 
his fate is sealed, — so far as his ability to do any 
work of general good is concerned. 

A still larger number of men are good enough 
in themselves, but are "owned" by third parties. 
Usually the latter are politicians who have absolute 
control of the district machines, or who are, at 
least, of very great importance in the political af- 
fairs of their district. A curious fact is that they 
are not invariably, though usually, of the same 
party as the member; for in some places, especially 
in the lower portions of the great cities, politics 
become purely a business, and in the squabbles for 
offices of emolument it becomes important for a 
local leader to have supporters among all the fac- 
tions. When one of these supporters is sent to a 
legislative body, he is allowed to act with the rest 
of his party on what his chief regards as the un- 
important questions of party or public interest, but 
he has to come in to heel at once when any matter 
arises touching the said chief's power, pocket, or 
influence. 

Other members will be controlled by some wealthy 
private citizen who is not in politics, but who has 
business interests likely to be affected by legisla- 
tion, and who is, therefore, willing to subscribe 



94 State Legislation 

heavily to the campaign expenses of an individual 
or of an association so as to ensure the presence 
in Albany of some one who will give him informa- 
tion and assistance. 

On one occasion there came before a committee 
of which I happened to be a member, a perfectly 
proper bill in the interest of a certain corporation; 
the majority of the committee, six in number, were 
thoroughly bad men, who opposed the measure 
with the hope of being paid to cease their oppo- 
sition. When I consented to take charge of the 
bill, I had stipulated that not a penny should be 
paid to ensure its passage. It therefore became 
necessary to see what pressure could be brought to 
bear on the recalcitrant members; and, accordingly, 
we had to find out who were the authors and spon- 
sors of their political being. Three proved to be 
under the control of local statesmen of the same 
party as themselves, and of equally bad moral char- 
acter; one was ruled by a politician of unsavory 
reputation from a different city; the fifth, a Demo- 
crat, was owned by a Republican Federal official; 
and the sixth by the president of a horse-car com- 
pany. A couple of letters from these two mag- 
nates forced the last members mentioned to change 
front on the bill with surprising alacrity. 

Nowadays, however, the greatest danger is that 
the member will be a senile tool of the "boss" or 
"machine" of his own party, in which case he can 
very rarely indeed be a good public servant. 

There are two classes of cases in which corrupt 



State Legislation 95 

members get money. One is when a wealthy cor- 
poration buys through some measure which will be 
of great benefit to itself, although, perhaps an in- 
jury to the public at large; the other is when a 
member introduces a bill hostile to some moneyed 
interest, with the expectation of being paid to let 
the matter drop. The latter, technically called a 
"strike," is much the most common; for, in spite of 
the outcry against them in legislative matters, cor- 
porations are more often sinned against than sin- 
ning. It is difficult, for reasons already given, in 
either case to convict the offending member, though 
we have very good laws against bribery. The re- 
form has got to come from the people at large. 
It will be hard to make any very great improvement 
in the character of the legislators until respectable 
people become more fully awake to their duties, 
and until the newspapers become more truthful and 
less reckless in their statements. 

It is not a pleasant task to have to draw one side 
of legislative life in such dark colors; but as the 
side exists, and as the dark lines never can be 
rubbed out until we have manfully acknowledged 
that they are there and need rubbing out, it seems 
the falsest of false delicacy to refrain from dwell- 
ing upon them. But it would be most unjust to ac- 
cept this partial truth as being the whole truth. We 
blame the Legislature for many evils, the ultimate 
cause for whose existence is to be found in our own 
shortcomings. 



^6 State Legislation 

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PICTURE 

There is a much brighter side to the picture, and 
this is the larger side, too. It would be impossible 
to get together a body of more earnest, upright, and 
disinterested men than the band of legislators, 
largely young men, who during the past three years 
have averted so much evil and accomplished so 
much good at Albany. They were able, at least 
partially, to put into actual practice the theories 
that had long been taught by the intellectual leaders 
of the country. And the life of a legislator who is 
earnest in his efforts faithfully to perform his duty 
as a public servant, is harassing and laborious to 
the last degree. He is kept at work from eight to 
fourteen hours a day; he is obliged to incur the 
bitterest hostility of a body of men as powerful 
as they are unscrupulous, who are always on the 
watch to find out, or to make out anything in his 
private or his public life which can be used against 
him; and he has on his side either a but partially 
roused pubHc opinion, or else a public opinion roused, 
it is true, but only blindly conscious of the evil from 
which it suffers, and alike ignorant and unwilling 
to avail itself of the proper remedy. 

This body of legislators, who, at any rate, worked 
honestly for what they thought right, were, as a 
whole, quite unselfish, and were not treated par- 
ticularly well by their constituents. Most of them 
soon got to realize the fact that if they wished to 
enjoy their brief space of political life (and most 
though not all of them did enjoy it) they would 



State Legislation 97 

have to make it a rule never to consider, in decid- 
ing" how to vote upon any question, how their vote 
would affect their own political prospects. No man 
can do good service in the Legislature as long as he 
is worrying over the effect of his actions upon his 
own future. After having learned this, most of 
them got on very happily indeed. As a rule, and 
where no matter of vital principle is involved, a 
member is bound to represent the views of those 
who have elected him ; but there are times when the 
voice of the people is anything but the voice of God, 
and then a conscientious man is equally bound to 
disregard it. 

In the long run, and on the average, the public 
will usually do justice to its representatives ; but it 
is a A^ery rough, uneven, and long-delayed justice. 
That is, judging from what I have myself seen of 
the way in which members were treated by their 
constituents, I should say that the chances of an 
honest man being retained in public life were about 
ten per cent better than if he were dishonest, other 
things being equal. This is not a showing very 
creditable to us as a people; and the explanation 
is to be found in the shortcomings peculiar to the 
different classes of our honest and respectable voters, 
— shortcomings which may be briefly outlined. 

SHORTCOMINGS OF THE PEOPLE WHO SHOULD 
TAKE PART IN POLITICAL WORK 

The people of means in all great cities have in 

times past shamefully neglected their political duties. 
5 Vol. L 



98 State Legislation 

and have been contemptuously disregarded by the 
professional politicians in consequence. A number 
of them will get together in a large hall, will vocif- 
erously demand "reform," as if it were some con- 
crete substance which could be handed out to them 
in slices, and will then disband with a feeling of the 
most serene self-satisfaction, and the belief that 
they have done their entire duty as citizens and 
members of the community. It is an actual fact 
that four out of five of our wealthy and educated 
men, of those who occupy what is called good so- 
cial position, are really ignorant of the nature of 
a caucus or a primary meeting, and never attend 
either. Now, under our form of government, no 
man can accomplish anything by himself; he must 
work in combination with others; and the men of 
whom we are speaking will never carry their proper 
weight in the political affairs of the country until 
they have formed themselves into some organiza- 
tion, or else, which would be better, have joined 
some of the organizations already existing. But 
there seems often to be a certain lack of the robuster 
virtues in our educated men, which makes them 
shrink from the struggle and the inevitable contact 
with rough politicians (who must often be rudely 
handled before they can be forced to behave) ; while 
their lack of familiarity with their surroundings 
causes them to lack discrimination between the poli- 
ticians who are decent, and those who are not; for 
in their eyes the two classes, both equally unfamil- 
iar, are indistinguishable. Another reason why this 



State Legislation ss 

class is not of more consequence in politics, is that 
it is often really out of sympathy — or, at least, its 
more conspicuous members are — with the feelings 
and interests of the great mass of the American 
people; and it is a discreditable fact that it is in 
this class that what has been most aptly termed the 
"colonial" spirit still survives. Until this survival 
of the spirit of colonial dependence is dead, those in 
whom it exists will serve chiefly as laughing-stocks 
to the shrewd, humorous, and prejudiced people who 
form nine-tenths of our body politic, and whose 
chief characteristics are their intensely American 
habits of thought, and their surly intolerance of any- 
thing like subservience to outside and foreign influ- 
ences. 

From different causes, the laboring classes, even 
when thoroughly honest at heart, often fail to ap- 
preciate honesty in their representatives. They are 
frequently not well informed in regard to the char- 
acter of the latter, and they are apt to be led aside 
by the loud professions of the so-called labor reform- 
ers, who are always promising to procure by legis- 
lation the advantages which can only come to work- 
ing men, or to any other men, by their individual 
or united energy, intelligence, and forethought. 
Very much has been accomplished by legislation for 
laboring men, by procuring mechanics' lien laws, 
factory laws, etc. ; and hence it often comes that they 
think legislation can accomplish all things for them ; 
and it is only natural, for instance, that a certain 
proportion of their number should adhere to the 



loo State Legislation 

demagogue who votes for a law to double the rate 
of wages, rather than to the honest man who op- 
poses it. When people are struggling for the neces- 
saries of existence, and vaguely feel, no matter how 
wrongly, that they are also struggling against an 
unjustly ordered system of life, it is hard to con- 
vince them of the truth that an ounce of perform- 
ance on their own part is worth a ton of legislative 
promises to change in some mysterious manner that 
life-system. 

In the country districts justice to a member is 
somewhat more apt to be done. When, as is so 
often the case, it is not done, the cause is usually to 
be sought for in the numerous petty jealousies and 
local rivalries which are certain to exist in any small 
community whose interests are narrow and most 
of whose members are acquainted with each other; 
and besides this, our country vote is essentially a 
Bourbon or Tory vote, being very slow to receive 
new ideas, very tenacious of old ones, and hence 
inclined to look with suspicion upon any one who 
tries to shape his course according to some standard 
differing from that which is already in existence. 

The actual work of procuring the passage of a bill 
through the Legislature is in itself far from slight. 
The hostility of the actively bad has to be discounted 
in advance, and the indifference of the passive ma- 
jority, who are neither very good nor very bad, has 
to be overcome. This can usually be accomplished 
only by stirring up their constituencies ; and so, be- 
sides the constant watchfulness over the course of 



State Legislation loi 

the measure through both houses and the continual 
debating and parhamentary fencing which is neces- 
sary, it is also indispensable to get the people of dis- 
tricts not directly affected by the bill ahve to its 
importance, so as to induce their representatives to 
vote for it. Thus, when the bill to establish a State 
Park at Niagara was on its passage, it was found 
that the great majority of the country members were 
opposed to it, fearing that it might conceal some 
land- jobbing scheme, and also fearing that their con- 
stituents, whose vice is not extravagance, would not 
countenance so great an expenditure of public 
money. It was of no use arguing with the mem- 
bers, and instead the country newspapers were 
flooded with letters, pamphlets were circulated, vis- 
its and personal appeals were made, until a sufficient 
number of these members changed front to enable 
us to get the lacking votes. 

LIFE IN THE LEGISLATURE 

As already said, some of us who usually acted 
together took a great deal of genuine enjoyment 
out of our experience at Albany. We liked the ex- 
citement and perpetual conflict, the necessity for 
putting forth all our powers to reach our ends, and 
the feeling that we were really being of some use 
in the world ; and if we were often both saddened 
and angered by the viciousness and ignorance of 
some of our colleagues, yet, in return, the latter 
many times unwittingly furnished us a good deal 
of amusement by their preposterous actions and 



I02 State Legislation 

speeches. Some of these are worth repeating, though 
they can never, in repetition, seem what they were 
when they occurred. The names and circumstances, 
of course, have been so changed as to prevent the 
possibiHty of the real heroes of them being recog- 
nized. It must be understood that they stand for 
the exceptional and not the ordinary workings of the 
average legislative intellect. I have heard more 
sound sense than foolishness talked in Albany, but 
to record the former would only bore the reader. 
And we must bear in mind that, while the ignorance 
of some of our representatives warrants our saying 
that they should not be in the Legislature, it does 
not at all warrant our condemning the system of 
government which permits them to be sent there. 
There is no system so good that it has not some 
disadvantages. The only way to teach our foreign- 
born fellow-citizens how to govern themselves, is to 
give each the full rights possessed by other Ameri- 
can citizens ; and it is not to be wondered at if they 
at first show themselves unskilful in the exercise 
of these rights. It has been my experience, more- 
over, in the Legislature that when Hans or Paddy 
does turn out really well, there are very few native 
Americans indeed who do better. A very large 
numl^er of the ablest and most disinterested and 
public-spirited citizens in New York are by birth 
Germans ; and their names are towers of strength in 
the community. When I had to name a committee 
which was to do the most difficult, dangerous, and 
important work that came before the Legislature at 



State Legislation 103 

all during my presence in it, I chose three of my 
four colleagues from among those of my fellow- 
legislators who were Irish either by birth or descent. 
One of the warmest and' most disinterested friends 
I have ever had or hope to have in New York poli- 
tics, is by birth an Irishman, and is also as genuine 
and good an American citizen as is to be found 
within the United States. 

A good many of the Yankees in the house would 
blunder time and again; but their blunders were 
generally merely stupid and not at all amusing, 
while, on the contrary, the errors of those who were 
of Milesian extraction always possessed a most re- 
freshing originality. 

INCIDENTS OF LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE 
In 1882, the Democrats in the House had a clear 
majority, but were for a long time unable to effect 
an organization, owing to a faction-fight in their 
own ranks between the Tammany and anti-Tam- 
many members, each side claiming the lion's share 
of the spoils. After a good deal of bickering, the 
anti-Tammany men drew up a paper containing a 
series of propositions, and submitted it to their op- 
ponents, with the prefatory remark, in writing, that 
it was an ultimatum. The Tammany members were 
at once summoned to an indignation meeting, their 
feelings closely resembling those of the famous 
fish-wife who was called a parallelopipedon. None 
of them had any very accurate idea as to what the 
word ultimatum meant; but that it was intensely 



I04 State Legislation 

ofifensive, not to say abusive, in its nature, they did 
not question for a moment. It was felt that some 
equivalent and equally strong term by which to call 
Tammany's proposed counter-address must be found 
immediately; but, as the Latin vocabulary of the 
members was limited, it was some time before a 
suitable term was forthcoming. Finally, by a happy 
inspiration, some gentleman of classical education 
remembered the phrase ipse dixit; it was at once felt 
to be the very phrase required by the peculiar exi- 
gencies of the case, and next day the reply appeared, 
setting forth with well-satisfied gravity that, in re- 
sponse to the County Democracy's "ultimatum," 
Tammany herewith produced her "ipse dixit." 

Public servants of higher grade than aldermen or 
Assemblymen sometimes give words a wider mean- 
ing than would be found in the dictionary. In many 
parts of the United States, owing to a curious series 
of historical associations (which, by the way, it 
would be interesting to trace), anything foreign and 
un-English is called ''Dutch," and it was in this 
sense that a member of a recent Congress used the 
term when, in speaking in favor of a tariff on works 
of art, he told of the reluctance with which he saw 
the productions of native artists exposed to compe- 
tition "with Dutch daubs from Italy"; a sentence 
pleasing alike from its alliteration and from its bold 
disregard of geographic trivialities. 

Often an orator of this sort will have his atten- 
tion attracted by some high-sounding word, which 
be has not before seen, and which he treasures up 



State Legislation 105 

to use in his next rhetorical flight, without regard 
to the exact meaning. There was a laboring man's 
advocate in the last Legislature, one of whose efforts 
attracted a good deal of attention from his magnifi- 
cent heedlessness of technical accuracy in the use of 
suniles. He was speaking against the convict con- 
tract-labor system, and wound up an already suffi- 
ciently remarkable oration with the still more start- 
ling ending that the system "was a vital cobra which 
was swamping the lives of the laboring men." Now, 
he had evidently carefully put together the sentence 
beforehand, and the process of mental synthesis by 
which he built it up must have been curious. "Vi- 
tal" was, of course, used merely as an adjective of 
intensity; he was a little uncertain in his ideas as 
to what a "cobra" was, but took it for granted that 
it was some terrible manifestation of nature, pos- 
sibly hostile to man, like a volcano, or a cyclone, or 
Niagara, for instance ; then "swamping" was chosen 
as describing an operation very likely to be per- 
formed by Niagara, or a cyclone, or a cobra; and 
behold, the sentence was complete. 

Sometimes a common phrase will be given a new 
meaning. Thus, the mass of legislation is strictly 
local in its character. Over a thousand bills come up 
for consideration in the course of a session, but a 
very few of which affect the interests of the State at 
large. The latter and the more important private 
bills are, or ought to be, carefully studied by each 
member; but it is a physical impossibility for any one 
man to examine the countless local bills of small im- 



io6 State Legislation 

portance. For these we have to trust to the member 
for the district affected, and when one comes up the 
response to any inquiry about it is usually, "Oh, it's 
a local bill, affecting So-and-so's district; he is re- 
sponsible for it." By degrees, some of the members 
get to use ''local" in the sense of unimportant, and a 
few of the Assemblymen of doubtful honesty gradu- 
ally come to regard it as meaning a bill of no pecu- 
niary interest to themselves. There was a smug lit- 
tle rascal in one of the last Legislatures, who might 
have come out of one of Lever's novels. He was un- 
doubtedly a bad case, but had a genuine sense of 
humor, and his "bulls" made him the delight of the 
house. One day I came in late, just as a bill was 
being voted on, and meeting my friend, hailed him, 
"Hello, Pat, what's up? what's this they're voting 
on?" to which Pat replied, with contemptuous indif- 
ference to the subject, but with a sly twinkle in his 
eye, "Oh, some unimportant measure, sorr ; some lo- 
cal bill or other — a constitutional amendment!" 

The old Dublin Parliament never listened to a 
better specimen of a bull than was contained in the 
speech of a very genial and pleasant friend of mine, 
a really finished orator, who, in the excitement at- 
tendant upon receiving Governor Cleveland's mes- 
sage vetoing the five-cent-fare bill, uttered the fol- 
lowing sentence : "Mr. Speaker, I recognize the hand 
that crops out in that veto; / have heard it before!" 

One member rather astonished us one day by his 
use of the word "shibboleth." He had evidently 
concluded that this was merely a more elegant 



State Legislation 107 

synonym of the good old word shillalah, and in re- 
proving a colleague for opposing a bill to increase 
the salaries of public laborers, he said, very impres- 
sively, "The throuble wid the young man is, that 
he uses the wurrd economy as a shibboleth, where- 
with to strike the working man." Afterward he 
changed the metaphor, and spoke of a number of us 
as using the word "reform" as a shibboleth, behind 
which to cloak our evil intentions. 

A mixture of classical and constitutional misin- 
formation was displayed a few sessions past in the 
State Assembly when I was a member of the Legis- 
lature. It was on the occasion of that annual nui- 
sance, the debate upon the Catholic Protectory item 
of the Supply Bill. Every year some one who is de- 
sirous of bidding for the Catholic vote introduces 
this bill, which appropriates a sum of varying dimen- 
sions for the support of the Catholic Protectory, an 
excellent institution, but one which has no right 
whatever to come to the State for support; each year 
the insertion of the item is opposed by a small num- 
ber of men, including the more liberal Catholics 
themselves, on proper grounds, and by a larger 
number from simple bigotry— a fact which was 
shown two years ago, when many of the most bitter 
opponents of this measure cheerfully supported a 
similar and equally objectionable one in aid of a 
Protestant institution. On the occasion referred to 
there were two Assemblymen, both Celtic gentle- 
men, who were rivals for the leadership of the mi- 
nority ; one of them a stout, red-faced man, who may 



io8 State Legislation 

go by the name of the "Colonel," owing to his hav- 
ing seen service in the army ; while the other was a 
dapper, voluble fellow, who had at one time been a 
civil justice and was called the "Judge." Somebody 
was opposing the insertion of the item on the ground 
(perfectly just, by the way) that it was unconsti- 
tutional and he dwelt upon this objection at some 
length. The Judge, who knew nothing of the Con- 
stitution, except that it was continually being quoted 
against all of his favorite projects, fidgeted about 
for some time, and at last jumped up to know if he 
might ask the gentleman a question. The latter said, 
"Yes," and the Judge went on, "I'd like to know if 
the gintleman has ever personally seen the Catholic 
Protectoree ?" "No, I haven't," said his astonished 
opponent. "Then, phwat do you mane by talking 
about its being unconstitootional. It's no more un- 
constitootional than you are!" Then, turning to the 
house, with slow and withering sarcasm, he added, 
"The throuble wid the gintleman is that he okkipies 
what lawyers would call a kind of a quasi-position 
upon this bill," and sat down amid the applause of 
his followers. 

His rival, the Colonel, felt he had gained alto- 
gether too much glory from the encounter, and after 
the nonplussed countryman had taken his seat, he 
stalked solemnly over to the desk of the elated Judge, 
looked at him majestically for a moment, and said, 
"You'll excuse my mentioning, sorr, that the gin- 
tleman who has just sat down knows more law in 
a wake than you do in a month ; and more than that, 



State Legislation 109 

Mike Shaunnessy, phwat do you mane by quotin' 
Latin on the flure of this House, when you don't 
know the alpha and omayga of the language!" and 
back he walked, leaving the Judge in humihated 
submission behind him. 

The Judge was always falling foul of the Consti- 
tution. Once, when defending one of his bills which 
made a small but wholly indefensible appropriation 
of State money for a private purpose, he asserted 
"that the Constitution didn't touch little things like 
that"; and on another occasion he remarked to me 
that he "never allowed the Constitution to come 
between friends." 

The Colonel was at that time chairman of a com- 
mittee, before which there sometimes came questions 
affecting the interests or supposed interests of labor. 
The committee was hopelessly bad in its composi- 
tion, most of the members being either very corrupt 
or exceedingly inefficient. The Colonel generally 
kept order with a good deal of dignity; indeed, 
when, as not infrequently happened, he had looked 
upon the rye that was flavored with lemon-peel, his 
sense of personal dignity grew till it became fairly 
majestic, and he ruled the committee with a rod of 
iron. At one time a bill had been introduced (one 
of the several score of preposterous measures that 
annually make their appearance purely for purposes 
of buncombe), by whose terms all laborers on the 
public works of great cities were to receive three dol- 
lars a day — double the market price of labor. To 
this bill, by the way, an amendment was afterward 



no State Legislation 

offered in the house by some gentleman with a 
sense of humor, which was to make it read that all 
the inhabitants of great cities were to receive three 
dollars a day, and the privilege of laboring on the 
pubHc works if they chose; the original author of the 
bill questioning doubtfully if the amendment "didn't 
make the measure too sweeping." The measure was, 
of course, of no consequence whatever to the genuine 
laboring men, but was of interest to the professional 
labor agitators; and a body of the latter requested 
leave to appear before the committee. This was 
granted, but on the appointed day the chairman 
turned up in a condition of such portentous dignity 
as to make it evident that he had been on a spree of 
protracted duration. Down he sat at the head of the 
table, and glared at the committeemen, while the lat- 
ter, whose faces would not have looked amiss in a 
rogues' gallery, cowered before him. The first 
speaker was a typical professional laboring man; a 
sleek, oily little fellow, with a black mustache, who 
had never done a stroke of work in his life. He 
felt confident that the Colonel would favor him, — a 
confidence soon to be rudely shaken, — and began 
with a deprecatory smile: 

"Humble though I am — " 

Rap, rap, went the chairman's gavel, and the fol- 
lowing dialogue occurred: 

Chairman (with dignity). "What's that you said 
you were, sir?" 

Professional Workingman (decidedly taken 
aback). "I— I said I was humble, sir." 



State Legislation iii 

Chairman (reproachfully). "Are you an Ameri- 
can citizen, sir?" 

P. W. "Yes, sir." 

Chairman (with emphasis). "Then you're the 
equal of any man in this State! Then you're the 
equal of any man on this committee! Don't let me 
hear you call yourself humble again! Go on, sir!" 

After this warning the advocate managed to keep 
clear of the rocks until, having worked himself up 
to quite a pitch of excitement, he incautiously ex- 
claimed, "But the poor man has no friends !" which 
brought the Colonel down on him at once. Rap, rap, 
went his gavel, and he scowled grimly at the offender 
while he asked with deadly deliberation : 

"What did you say that time, sir?" 

P. W. (hopelessly). "I said the poor man had no 
friends, sir." 

Chairman (with sudden fire). "Then you hed, 
sir! I am the poor man's friend! so are my col- 
leagues, sir!" (Here the rogues' gallery tried to 
look benevolent.) "Speak the truth, sir!" (with 
sudden change from the manner admonitory to the 
manner mandatory), "Now, you sit down quick, 
or get out of this somehow!" 

This put an end to the sleek gentleman, and his 
place was taken by a fellow-professional of another 
type — a great, burly man, who would talk to you on 
private matters in a perfectly natural tone of voice, 
but who, the minute he began to speak of the Wrongs 
(with a capital W) of Labor (with a capital L), 
bellowed as if he had been a bull of Bashan. The 



112 State Legislation 

Colonel, by this time pretty far gone, eyed him 
malevolently, swaying to and fro in his chair. How- 
ever, the first effect of the fellow's oratory was 
soothing rather than otherwise, and produced the 
unexpected result of sending the chairman fast 
asleep sitting bolt upright. But in a minute or 
two, as the man warmed up to his work, he gave 
a peculiarly resonant howl which waked the Colonel 
up. The latter came to himself with a jerk, looked 
fixedly at the audience, caught sight of the speaker, 
remembered having seen him before, forgot that he 
had been asleep, and concluded that it must have 
been on some previous day. Hammer, hammer, 
went the gavel, and — 

"I've seen you before, sir!" 

"You have not," said the man. 

"Don't tell me I lie, sir !" responded the Colonel, 
with sudden ferocity. "You've addressed this com- 
mittee on a previous day!" 

"I've never — " began the man; but the Colonel 
broke in again : 

"Sit down, sir! The dignity of the chair must 
be preserved! No man shall speak to this com- 
mittee twice. The committee stands adjourned." 
And with that he stalked majestically out of the 
room, leaving the committee and the delegation to 
gaze sheepishly into each other's faces. 

OUTSIDERS 

After all, outsiders furnish quite as much fun 
as the legislators themselves. The number of men 



State Legislation 113 

who persist in writing one letters of praise, abuse, 
and advice on every conceivable subject is appalling; 
and the writers are of every grade, from the lunatic 
and the criminal up. The most difficult to deal with 
are the men with hobbies. There is the Protestant 
fool, who thinks that our liberties are menaced by 
the machinations of the Church of Rome; and his 
companion idiot, who wants legislation against all 
secret societies, especially the Masons. Then there 
are the believers in "isms" of whom the women- 
suffragists stand in the first rank. Now I have al- 
ways been a believer in woman's rights, but I must 
confess I have never seen such a hopelessly imprac- 
ticable set of persons as the woman-suffragists who 
came up to Albany to get legislation. They simply 
M^ould not draw up their measures in proper form ; 
when I pointed out to one of them that their pro- 
posed bill was drawn up in direct defiance of certain 
of the sections of the Constitution of the State he 
blandly replied that he did not care at all for that, 
because the measure had been drawn up so as to be 
in accord with the Constitution of Heaven. There 
was no answer to this beyond the very obvious one 
that Albany was in no way akin to Heaven. The 
ultra-temperance people— not the moderate and sen- 
sible ones — are quite as impervious to common-sense. 
A member's correspondence is sometimes amus- 
ing. A member receives shoals of letters of advice, 
congratulation, entreaty, and abuse, half of them 
anonymous. Most of these are stupid; but some 
are at least out of the common. 



11^ State Legislation 

I had some constant correspondents. One lady 
in the western part of the State wrote me a weekly 
disquisition on woman's rights. A Buffalo clergy- 
man spent two years on a one-sided correspondence 
about prohibition. A gentleman of Syracuse wrote 
me such a stream of essays and requests about the 
charter of that city that I feared he would drive me 
into a lunatic asylum ; but he anticipated matters by 
going into one himself. A New Yorker at regvilar 
inter\'als sent up a request that I would "reintro- 
duce" the Dongan charter, which had lapsed two 
centuries before. A gentleman interested in a pro- 
posed law to protect primaries took to telegraphing 
daily questions as to its progress — a habit of which 
I broke him by sending in response tel^rams of 
several hundred words each, which I was careful 
not to prepay. 

There are certain legislative actions which must 
be taken in a purely Pickwickian sense. Notable 
among these are the resolutions of sympathy 
for the alleged oppressed patriots and peoples of 
Europe. These are generally directed against 
England, as there exists in the lower strata 
of political life an Anglophobia quite as objec- 
tionable as the Anglomania of the higher social 
circles. 

As a rule, these resolutions are to be classed as 

simply boiiffe affairs ; they are commonly introduced 

• by some ambitious legislator — often, I regret to say, 

a native American — who has a large foreign vote in 

his district. During my term of service in the Legis- 



State Legislation 115 

lature, resolutions were introduced demanding the 
recall of Minister Lowell, assailing the Czar for his 
conduct toward the Russian Jews, sympathizing 
with the Land League and the Dutch Boers, etc., 
etc. ; the passage of each of which we strenuously 
and usually successfully opposed, on the ground that 
while we would warmly welcome any foreigner who 
came here, and in good faith assumed the duties of 
American citizenship, we had a right to demand in 
return that he should not bring any of his race or na- 
tional antipathies into American political life. Reso- 
lutions of this character are sometimes undoubtedly 
proper; but in nine cases out of ten they are wholly 
unjustifiable. An instance of this sort of thing 
which took place not at Albany may be cited. Re- 
cently the Board of Aldermen of one of our great 
cities received a stinging rebuke, which it is to be 
feared the aldermanic intellect was too dense fully 
to appreciate. The aldermen passed a resolution 
"condemning" the Czar of Russia for his conduct 
toward his fellow-citizens of Hebrew faith, and 
"demanding" that he should forthwith treat them 
better; this was forwarded to the Russian Minister, 
with a request that it be sent to the Czar. It came 
back forty-eight hours afterward, with a note on 
the back by one of the under-secretaries of the lega- 
tion, to the effect that as he was not aware that 
Russia had any diplomatic relations with this par- 
ticular Board of Aldermen, and as, indeed, Russia 
was not officially cognizant of their existence, and, 
moreover, was wholly indifferent to their opinions 



ii6 State Legislation 

on any conceivable subject, he herewith returned 
them their kind communication.* 

In concluding I would say, that while there is so 
much evil at Albany, and so much reason for our 
exerting ourselves to bring about a better state of 
things, yet there is no cause for being disheartened 
or for thinking that it is hopeless to expect improve- 
ment. On the contrary, the standard of legislative 
morals is certainly higher than it was fifteen years 
ago or twenty-five years ago. In the future it 
may either improve or retrograde, by fits and starts, 
for it will keep pace exactly with the awakening of 
the popular mind to the necessity of having honest 
and intelligent representatives in the State Legis^ 

lature.t 

I have had opportunity of knowing something 
about the workings of but a few of our other State 
Legislatures : from what I have seen and heard, I 
should say that we stand about on a par with those 

* A few years later a member of the Italian Legation 
"scored" heavily on one of our least pleasant national pecul- 
iarities. An Italian had just been lynched in Colorado, and 
an Italian paper in New York bitterly denounced the Italian 
Minister for his supposed apathy in the matter. The member 
of the Legation in question answered that the accusations 
were most unjust, for the Minister had worked zealously un- 
til he found that the deceased "had taken out his naturaliza- 
tion papers, and was entitled to all the privileges of American 
citizenship." 

i At present, twelve years later, I should say that there 
was rather less personal corruption in the Legislature; but also 
less independence and greater subservience to the machine, 
which is even less responsive to honest and enlightened public 
opinion. 



State Legislation ny 

of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Illinois, above that 
of Louisiana, and below those of Vermont, Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode Island, and Wyoming, as well as 
below the national legislature at Washington. But 
the moral status of a legislative body, especially in 
the West, often varies widely from year to year. 



VI 
MACHINE POLITICS IN NEW YORK CITY* 

IN New York City, as in most of our other great 
municipalities, the direction of pohtical affairs 
has been for many years mainly in the hands of a 
class of men who make politics their regular business 
and means of livelihood. These men are able to keep 
their grip only by means of the singularly perfect 
way in which they have succeeded in organizing 
their respective parties and factions ; and it is in con- 
sequence of the clock-work regularity and efficiency 
with which these several organizations play their 
parts, alike for good and for evil, that they have been 
nicknamed by outsiders "machines," while the men 
who take part in and control, or, as they would them- 
selves say, "run" them, now form a well-recognized 
and fairly well-defined class in the community, and 
are familiarly known as machine politicians. It may 
be of interest to sketch in outline some of the char- 
acteristics of those men and of their machines, the 
methods by which and the objects for which they 
work, and the reasons for their success in the politi- 
cal field. 

The terms machine and machine politician are 
now undoubtedly used ordinarily in a reproachful 

* The Century, November, 1886. 
(118) 



Machine Politics 119 

sense ; but it does not at all follow that this sense is 
always the right one. On the contrary, the machine 
is often a very powerful instrument for good ; and a 
machine politician really desirous of doing honest 
work on behalf of the community, is fifty times as 
useful an ally as is the average philanthropic out- 
sider. Indeed, it is of course true, that any political 
organization (and absolutely no good work can be 
done in poHtics without an organization) is a ma- 
chine; and any man who perfects and uses this 
organization is himself, to a certain extent, a ma- 
chine politician. In the rough, however, the feeling 
against machine politics and politicians is tolerably 
well justified by the facts, although this statement 
really reflects most severely upon the educated and 
honest people who largely hold themselves aloof 
from public life, and show a curious incapacity for 
fulfilling their public duties. 

The organizations that are commonly and dis- 
tinctively known as machines are those belonging 
to the two great recognized parties, or to their 
factional subdivisions ; and the reason why the word 
machine has come to be used, to a certain extent, 
as a term of opprobrium is to be found in the fact 
that these organizations are now run by the leaders 
very largely as business concerns to benefit them- 
selves and their followers, with little regard to the 
community at large. This is natural enough. The 
men having control and doing all the work have 
gradually come to have the same feeling about poli- 
tics that other men have about the business of a 



I20 Machine Politics 

merchant or manufacturer; it was too much to ex- 
pect that if left entirely to themselves they would 
continue disinterestedly to work for the benefit of 
others. Many a machine politician who is to-day 
a most unwholesome influence in our politics is in 
private life quite as respectable as any one else; only 
he has forgotten that his business affects the State 
at large, and, regarding it as merely his own private 
concern, he has carried into it the same selfish spirit 
that actuates in business matters the majority of 
the average mercantile community. A merchant or 
manufacturer works his business, as a rule, purely 
for his own benefit, without any regard whatever 
for the community at large. The merchant uses all 
his influence for a low tariff, and the manufacturer 
is even more strenuously in favor of protection, not 
at all from any theory of abstract right, but be- 
cause of self-interest. Each views such a political 
question as the tariff, not from the standpoint of 
how it will affect the nation as a whole, but merely 
from that of how it will affect him personally. If 
a community were in favor of protection, but never- 
theless permitted all the governmental machinery to 
fall into the hands of importing merchants, it would 
be small cause for wonder if the latter shaped the 
laws to suit themselves, and the chief blame, after 
all, would rest with the supine and lethargic ma- 
jority which failed to have enough energy to take 
charge of their own affairs. Our machine politicians 
in actual life act in just the same way; their actions 
are very often dictated by selfish motives, with but 



Machine Politics 121 

little regard for the people at large, though, like the 
merchants, they often hold a very high standard of 
honor on certain points; they therefore need con- 
tinually to be watched and opposed by those who 
wish to see good government. But, after all, it is 
hardly to be wondered at that they abuse power 
which is allowed to fall into their hands owing 
to the ignorance or timid indifference of those who 
by rights should themselves keep it. 

In a society properly constituted for true demo- 
cratic government — in a society such as that seen 
in many of our country towns, for example — ma- 
chine rule is impossible. But in New York, as well 
as in most of our other great cities, the conditions 
favor the growth of ring or boss rule. The chief 
causes thus operating against good government are 
the moral and mental attitudes toward politics as- 
sumed by different sections of the voters. A large 
number of these are simply densely ignorant, and, 
of course, such are apt to fall under the influence 
of cunning leaders, and even if they do right, it is 
by hazard merely. The criminal class in a great city 
is always of some size, while what may be called 
the potentially criminal class is still larger. Then 
there is a great class of laboring men, mostly of 
foreign birth or parentage, who at present both ex- 
pect too much from legislation and yet at the same 
time realize too little how powerfully though indi- 
rectly they are affected by a bad or corrupt govern- 
ment. In many wards the overwhelming majority 

of the voters do not realize that heavy taxes fall 
6 Vol. I. 



122 Machine Politics 

ultimately upon them, and actually view with perfect 
complacency burdens laid by their representatives 
upon the tax-payers, and, if anything, approve of 
a hostile attitude toward the latter — having a vague 
feeling of animosity toward them as possessing 
more than their proper proportion of the world's 
good things, and sharing with most other human 
beings the capacity to bear with philosophic equa- 
nimity ills merely affecting one's neighbors. When 
powerfully roused on some financial, but still more 
on some sentimental question, this same laboring 
class will throw its enormous and usually decisive 
weight into the scale which it believes inclines to 
the right; but its members are often curiously and 
cynically indifferent to charges of corruption against 
favorite heroes or demagogues, so long as these 
charges do not imply betrayal of their own real or 
fancied interests. Thus an alderman or Assembly- 
man representing certain wards may make as much 
money as he pleases out of corporations without 
seriously jeopardizing his standing with his con- 
stituents; but if he once, whether from honest or 
dishonest motives, stands by a corporation when the 
interests of the latter are supposed to conflict with 
those of "the people," it is all up with him. These 
voters are, moreover, very emotional; they value 
in a public man what we are accustomed to consider 
virtues only to be taken into account when estimat- 
ing private character. Thus, if a man is open- 
handed and warm-hearted, they consider it as a fair 
offset to his being a little bit shaky when it comes 



Machine Politics 123 

to applying the eighth commandment to affairs of 
state. I have more than once heard the statement, 
"He is very hberal to the poor," advanced as a 
perfectly satisfactory answer to the charge that a 
certain pubhc man v^as corrupt. Moreover, work- 
ing men, whose lives are passed in one unceasing 
round of narrow and monotonous toil, are not un- 
naturally inclined to pay heed to the demagogues 
and professional labor advocates who promise if 
elected to try to pass laws to better their condition ; 
they are hardly prepared to understand or approve 
the American doctrine of government, which is 
that the State can not ordinarily attempt to better 
the condition of a man or a set of men, but can 
merely see that no wrong is done him or them by 
any one else, and that all alike have a fair chance 
in the struggle for life — a struggle wherein it 
may as well at once be freely though sadly acknowl- 
edged, very many are bound to fall, no matter how 
ideally perfect any given system of government 
may be. 

Of course it must be remembered that all these 
general statements are subject to an immense num- 
ber of individual exceptions ; there are tens of thou- 
sands of men who work with their hands for their 
daily bread and yet put into actual practice that sub- 
lime virtue of disinterested adherence to the right, 
even when it seems likely merely to benefit others, 
and those others better off than they themselves 
are; for they vote for honesty and cleanliness, in 
spite of great temptation to do the opposite, and in 



124 Machine Politics 

spite of their not seeing how any immediate benefit 
will result to themselves. 

REASONS FOR THE NEGLECT OF PUBLIC DUTIES 
BY RESPECTABLE MEN IN EASY CIR- 
CUMSTANCES 

This class is composed of the great bulk of the 
men who range from well-to-do up to very rich; 
and of these the former generally and the latter al- 
most universally neglect their political duties, for 
the most part rather pluming themselves upon their 
good conduct if they so much as vote on election 
day. This largely comes from the tremendous wear 
and tension of life in our great cities. Moreover, 
the men of small means with us are usually men of 
domestic habits; and this very devotion to home, 
which is one of their chief virtues, leads them to 
neglect their public duties. They work hard, as 
clerks, mechanics, small tradesmen, etc., all day 
long, and when they get home in the evening they 
dislike to go out. If they do go to a ward meeting 
they find themselves isolated, and strangers both to 
the men whom they meet and to the matter on which 
they have to act; for in the city a man is quite as 
sure to know next to nothing about his neighbors 
as in the country he is to be intimately acquainted 
with them. In the country the people of a neighbor- 
hood, when they assemble in one of their local con- 
ventions, are already well acquainted, and therefore 
able to act together with effect ; whereas in the city, 
even if the ordinary citizens do come out, they are 



Machine Politics 125 

totally unacquainted with one another, and are as 
helplessly unable to oppose the disciplined ranks of 
the professional politicians as is the case with a mob 
of freshmen in one of our colleges when in danger 
of being hazed by the sophomores. Moreover, the 
pressure of competition in city life is so keen that 
men often have as much as they can do to attend to 
their own affairs, and really hardly have the leisure 
to look after those of the public. The general ten- 
dency everywhere is toward the specialization of 
functions, and this holds good as well in politics as 
elsewhere. 

The reputable private citizens of small means 
thus often neglect to attend to their public duties 
because to do so would perhaps interfere with their 
private business. This is bad enough, but the case 
is worse with the really wealthy, who still more 
generally neglect these same duties, partly because 
not to do so would interfere with their pleasure, 
and partly from a combination of other motives, 
all of them natural but none of them creditable. 
A successful merchant, well dressed, pompous, self- 
important, unused to any life outside of the count- 
ing room, and accustomed because of his very 
success to be treated with deferential regard, as one 
who stands above the common run of humanity, 
naturally finds it very unpleasant to go to a caucus 
or primary where he has to stand on an equal foot- 
ing with his groom and day-laborers, and indeed 
may discover that the latter, thanks to their faculty 
for combination, are rated higher in the scale of 



126 Machine Politics 

political importance than he is himself. In all the 
large cities of the North the wealthier, or, as they 
would prefer to style themselves, the "upper" classes, 
tend distinctly toward the bourgeois type; and an 
individual in the bourgeois stage of development, 
while honest, industrious, and virtuous, is also not 
unapt to be a miracle of timid and short-sighted self- 
ishness. The commercial classes are only too likely 
to regard everything merely from the standpoint of 
"Does it pay?" and many a merchant does not take 
any part in politics because he is short-sighted 
enough to think that it will pay him better to at- 
tend purely to making money, and too selfish to be 
willing to undergo any trouble for the sake of ab- 
stract duty; while the younger men of this type 
are too much engrossed in their various social 
pleasures to be willing to give their time to any- 
thing else. It is also unfortunately true, especially 
throughout New England and the Middle States, 
that the general tendency among people of culture 
and high education has been to neglect and even 
to look down upon the rougher and manlier virtues, 
so that an advanced state of intellectual develop- 
ment is too often associated with a certain effem- 
inacy of character. Our more intellectual men 
often shrink from the raw coarseness and the eager 
struggle of political life as if they were women. 
Now, however refined and virtuous a man may be, 
he is yet entirely out of place in the American body- 
politic unless he is himself of sufficiently coarse 
fibre and virile character to be more angered than 



Machine Politics 127 

hurt by an insult or injury; the timid good form a 
most useless as well as a most despicable portion of 
the community. Again, when a man is heard ob- 
jecting to taking part in politics because it is "low," 
he may be set down as either a fool or a coward: 
it would be quite as sensible for a militiaman to ad- 
vance the same statement as an excuse for refusing 
to assist in quelling a riot. Many cultured men 
neglect their political duties simply because they 
are too delicate to have the element of "strike back" 
in their natures, and because they have an unmanly 
fear of being forced to stand up for their own 
rights when threatened with abuse or insult. Such 
are the conditions which give the machine men 
their chance; and they have been able to make the 
most possible out of this chance, — first, because of 
the perfection to which they have brought their 
machinery, and, second, because of the social char- 
acter of their political organizations. 

ORGANIZATION AND WORK OF THE MACHINES 
The machinery of any one of our political bodies 
is always rather complicated; and its politicians in- 
variably endeavor to keep it so, because, their time 
being wholly given to it, they are able to become 
perfectly familiar with all its workings, while the 
average outsider becomes more and more helpless 
in proportion as the organization is less and less 
simple. Besides some others of minor importance, 
there are at present in New York three great politi- 
cal organizations, viz., those of the regular Repub- 



128 Machine Politics 

licans, of the County Democracy,* and of Tammany 
Hall, that of the last being perhaps the most perfect, 
viewed from a machine standpoint. Although with 
wide differences in detail, all these bodies are organ- 
ized upon much the same general plan; and one 
description may be taken in the rough, as applying 
to all. There is a large central committee, com- 
posed of numerous delegates from the different as- 
sembly districts, which decides upon the various 
questions affecting the party as a whole in the 
county and city; and then there are the various 
organizations in the assembly districts themselves, 
which are the real sources of strength, and with 
which alone it is necessary to deal. There are dif- 
ferent rules for the admission to the various dis- 
trict primaries and caucuses of the voters belonging 
to the respective parties; but in almost every case 
the real work is done and the real power held by 
a small knot of men, who in turn pay a greater or 
less degree of fealty to a single boss. 

The mere work to be done on election day and 
in preparing for it forms no slight task. There is 
an association in each assembly or election district, 
with its president, secretary, treasurer, executive 
committee, etc. ; these call the primaries and cau- 
cuses, arrange the lists of the delegates to the 
various nominating conventions, raise funds for 
campaign purposes, and hold themselves in commu- 
nication with their central party organizations. At 

* Since succeeded every year or two by some other anti- 
Tammany Democratic organization or organizations. 



Machine Politics 129 

the primaries in each assembly district a full set of 
delegates is chosen to nominate Assemblymen and 
aldermen, while others are chosen to go to the State, 
county, and congressional conventions. Before elec- 
tion day many thousands of complete sets of the 
party ticket are printed, folded, and put together, 
or, as it is called, "bunched." A single bundle of 
these ballots is then sent to every voter in the dis- 
trict, while thousands are reserved for distribution 
at the polls. In every election precinct^there are 
probably twenty or thirty in each assembly district 
— a captain and from two to a dozen subordinates 
are appointed.* These have charge of the actual 
giving out of the ballots at the polls. On election 
day they are at their places long before the hour 
set for voting; each party has a wooden booth, 
looking a good deal like a sentry-box, covered 
over with flaming posters containing the names of 
their nominees, and the "workers" cluster around 
these as centres. Every voter as he approaches is 
certain to be offered a set of tickets; usually these 
sets are "straight," that is, contain all the nominees 
of one party, but frequently crooked work will be 
done, and some one candidate will get his own bal- 
lots bunched with the rest of those of the opposite 
party. Each captain of a district is generally paid 
a certain sum of money, greater or less, according 

* All this has been changed, vastly for the better, by the 
ballot reform laws, under which the State distributes the 
4)rinted ballots ; and. elections are now much more honest than 
formerly. 



ijo Machine Politics 

to his ability as a politician or according to his power 
of serving the boss or machine. Nominally this 
money goes in paying the subordinates and in what 
are vaguely termed "campaign expenses," but, as a 
matter of fact, it is in many instances simply pock- 
eted by the recipient ; indeed, very little of the large 
sums of money annually spent by candidates to bribe 
voters actually reaches the voters supposed to be 
bribed. The money thus furnished is procured 
either by subscriptions from rich outsiders, or by 
assessments upon the candidates themselves; for- 
merly much was also obtained from ofhce-holders, 
but this is now prohibited by law. A great deal of 
money is also spent in advertising, placarding post- 
ers, paying for public meetings, and organizing and 
uniforming members to take part in some huge 
torchlight procession — this last particular form of 
spectacular enjoyment being one peculiarly dear to. 
the average American political mind. Candidates 
for very lucrative positions are often assessed really 
huge sums, in order to pay for the extravagant meth- 
ods by which our canvasses are conducted. Before 
a legislative committee of which I was a member, 
the Register of New York County blandly testified 
under oath that he had forgotten whether his ex- 
penses during his canvass had been over or under 
fifty thousand dollars. It must be remembered that 
even now — and until recently the evil was very 
much greater — the rewards paid to certain public 
officials are out of all proportion to the services 
rendered; and in such cases the active managing 



Machine Politics 131 

politicians feel that they have a right to exact the 
heaviest possible toll from the candidate, to help pay 
the army of hungry heelers who do their bidding. 
Thus, before the same committee, the County Clerk 
testified that his income was very nearly eighty thou- 
sand a year, but with refreshing frankness admitted 
that his own position was practically merely that of 
a figure-head, and that all the work was done by his 
deputy, on a small, fixed salary. As the County 
Clerk's term is three years, he should nominally 
have received nearly a quarter of a million dollars; 
but as a matter of fact two-thirds of the money 
went to the political organizations with which he 
was connected. The enormous emoluments of such 
officers are, of course, most effective in debauching 
politics. They bear no relation whatever to the 
trifling quantity of work done, and the chosen can- 
didate readily recognizes what is the exact truth, — 
namely, that the benefit of his service is expected to 
inure to his party allies, and not to the citizens at 
large. Thus, one of the county officers who came 
before the above-mentioned committee, testified with 
a naive openness which was appalling, in answer to 
what was believed to be a purely formal question as 
to whether he performed his public duties faithfully, 
that he did so perform them whenever they did not 
conflict with his political duties! — meaning thereby, 
as he explained, attending to his local organizations, 
seeing politicians, fixing primaries, bailing out those 
of his friends (apparently by no means few in num- 
ber) who got hauled up before a justice of the peace, 



I-J2 Machine Politics 

etc. This man's statements were valuable because, 
being a truthful person and of such dense ignorance 
that he was at first wholly unaware his testimony 
was in any way remarkable, he really tried to tell 
things as they were; and it had evidently never 
occurred to him that he was not expected by every 
one to do just as he had been doing, — that is, to 
draw a large salary for himself, to turn over a still 
larger fund to his party allies, and conscientiously 
to endeavor, as far as he could, by the free use of 
his time and influence, to satisfy the innumerable 
demands made upon him by the various small-fry 
politicians.* 

"HEELERS" 

The "heelers," or "workers," who stand at the 
polls, and are paid in the way above described, form 
a large part of the rank and file composing each or- 
ganization. There are, of course, scores of them in 
each assembly district association, and, together 
with the almost equally numerous class of federal, 
State, or local paid officeholders (except in so far as 
these last have been cut out by the operations of the 
civil-service reform laws), they form the bulk of 
the men by whom the machine is run ; the bosses 
of great and small degree chiefly merely oversee the 
work and supervise the deeds of their henchmen, 
the organization of a party in our city is really 
much like that of an army. There is one great 

* As a consequence of our investigation, the committee, of 
wliich T was chairman, succeeded in securing the enactment 
of laws which abolished these enormous salaries. 



Machine Politics 133 

central boss, assisted by some trusted and able lieu- 
tenants; these communicate with the different dis- 
trict bosses, whom they alternately bully and assist. 
The district boss in turn has a number of half- 
subordinates, half-allies, under him; these latter 
choose the captains of the election districts, etc., and 
come into contact with the common heelers. The 
more stupid and ignorant the common heelers are, 
and the more implicitly they obey orders, the greater 
becomes the effectiveness of the machine. An ideal 
machine has for its officers men of marked force, 
cunning and unscrupulous, and for its common sol- 
diers men who may be either corrupt or moderately 
honest, but who must be of low intelligence. This 
is the reason why such a large proportion of the 
members of every political machine are recruited 
from the lower grades of the foreign population. 
These henchmen obey unhesitatingly the orders of 
their chiefs, both at the primary or caucus and on 
election day, receiving regular rewards for so doing, 
either in employment procured for them or else in 
money outright. Of course it is by no means true 
that these men are all actuated merely by mercenary 
motives. The great majority entertain also a real 
feeling of allegiance toward the party to which they 
belong, or toward the political chief whose fortunes 
they follow; and many work entirely without pay 
and purely for what they believe to be right. In- 
deed, an experienced politician always greatly pre- 
fers to have under him men whose hearts are in 
their work and upon whose unbribed devotion he can 



134 Machine Politics 

rely; but unfortunately he finds, in most cases, that 
their exertions have to be seconded by others which 
are prompted by motives far more mixed. 

All of these men, whether paid or not, make a 
business of political life and are thoroughly at home 
among the obscure intrigues that go to make up so 
much of it; and consequently they have quite as 
much the advantage when pitted against amateurs 
as regular soldiers have when matched against mili- 
tiamen. But their numbers, though absolutely large, 
are, relatively to the entire community, so small that 
some other cause must be taken into consideration 
in order to account for the commanding position oc- 
cupied by the machine and the machine politicians in 
public life. This other determining cause is to be 
found in the fact that all these machine associations 
have a social as well as a political side, and that a 
large part of the political life of every leader or boss 
is also identical with his social life. 

THE SOCIAL SIDE OF MACHINE POLITICS 

The political associations of the various districts 
are not organized merely at the approach of election 
day ; on the contrary, they exist throughout the year, 
and for the greater part of the time are tO' a great 
extent merely social clubs. To a large number of 
the men who belong to them they are the chief so- 
cial rallying-point. These men congregate in the 
association building in the evening to smoke, drink 
beer, and play cards, precisely as the wealthier men 
gather in the clubs whose purpose is avowedly so- 



Machine Politics 135 

cial and not political — such as the Union, Uni- 
versity, and Knickerbocker. Politics thus becomes 
a pleasure and relaxation as well as a serious pur- 
suit. The different members of the same club or 
association become closely allied with one another, 
and able to act together on occasions with unison 
and esprit de corps; and they will stand by one of 
their own number for reasons precisely homologous 
to those which make a member of one of the upper 
clubs support a fellow-member if the latter happens 
to run for office. "He is a gentleman, and shall have 
my vote," says the swell club man. "He's one of 
the boys, and I'm for him," replies the heeler from 
the district party association. In each case the feel- 
ing is social rather than political, but where the club 
man influences one vote the heeler controls ten. A 
rich merchant and a small tradesman alike find it 
merely a bore to attend the meetings of the local 
political club; it is to them an irksome duty which 
is shirked whenever possible. But to the small poli- 
ticians and to the various workers and hangers-on, 
these meetings have a distinct social attraction, and 
the attendance is a matter of preference. They are 
in congenial society and in the place where by choice 
they spend their evenings, and where they bring their 
friends and associates; and naturally all the men so 
brought together gradually blend their social and 
political ties, and work with an effectiveness impos- 
sible to the outside citizens whose social instincts 
interfere instead of coinciding with their political 
duties. If an ordinary citizen wishes to have a game 



136 Machine Politics 

of cards or a talk with some of his companions, he 
must keep away from the local headquarters of his 
party ; whereas, under similar circumstances, the pro- 
fessional politician must go there. The man who is 
fond of his home naturally prefers to stay there in 
the evening, rather than go out among the noisy club 
frequenters, whose pleasure it is to see each other 
at least weekly, and who spend their evenings dis- 
cussing neither sport, business, nor scandal, as do 
other sections of the community, but the equally 
monotonous subject of ward politics. 

The strength of our political organizations arises 
from their development as social bodies ; many of the 
hardest workers in their ranks are neither office- 
holders nor yet paid henchmen, but merely members 
who have gradually learned to identify their for- 
tunes with the party whose hall they have come to 
regard as the headquarters in which to spend the 
most agreeable of their leisure moments. Under 
the American system it is impossible for a man to 
accomplish anything by himself; he must associate 
himself with others, and they must throw their 
weight together. This is just what the social func- 
tions of the political clubs enable their members to 
do. The great and rich society clubs are composed 
of men who are not apt to take much interest in 
politics anyhow, and never act as a body. The great 
effect produced by a social organization for politi- 
cal purposes is shown by the career of the Union 
League Club ; and equally striking proof can be seen 
by every man who attends a ward meeting. There 



Machine Politics 137 

is thus, however much to be regretted it may be, a 
constant tendency toward the concentration of po- 
htical power in the hands of those men who by 
taste and education are fitted to enjoy the social 
side of the various political organizations. 

THE LIQUOR-SELLER IN POLITICS 

It is this that gives the liquor-sellers their enor- 
mous influence in politics. Preparatory to the gen- 
eral election of 1884, there were held in the various 
districts of New York ten hundred and seven pri- 
maries and political conventions of all parties, and 
of these no less than six hundred and thirty-three 
took place in Hquor-saloons, — a showing that leaves 
small ground for wonder at the low average grade 
of the nominees. The reason for such a condition of 
things is perfectly evident ; it is because the liquor- 
saloons are places of social resort for the same men 
who turn the local political organizations into social 
clubs. Bartenders form perhaps the nearest ap- 
proach to a leisure class that we have at present on 
this side of the water. Naturally they are on semi- 
intimate terms with all who frequent their houses. 
There is no place where more gossip is talked than 
in bar-rooms, and much of this gossip is about poli- 
tics, — that is, the politics of the ward, not of the 
nation. The tariff and the silver question may be 
alluded to and civil-service reform may be inci- 
dentally damned, but the real interest comes in dis- 
cussing the doings of the men with whom they are 
personally acquainted : why Billy So-and-so, the al- 



138 Machine Politics 

derman, has quarreled with his former chief sup- 
porter ; whether "old man X" has really managed to 
fix the delegates to a given convention; the reason 
why one faction bolted at the last primary; and if 
it is true that a great downtown boss who has an 
intimate friend of opposite political faith running 
in an uptown district has forced the managers of his 
own party to put up a man of straw against him. 
The barkeeper is a man of much local power, and is, 
of course, hail-fellow-well-met with his visitors, as 
he and they can be of mutual assistance to one an- 
other. Even if of different politics, their feelings 
toward each other are influenced purely by personal 
considerations ; and, indeed, this is true of most of the 
smaller bosses as regards their dealings among them- 
selves, for, as one of them once remarked to me with 
enigmatic truthfulness, "there are no politics in poli- 
tics" of the lower sort — which, being interpreted, 
means that a professional ix)litician is much less apt 
to be swayed by the fact of a man's being a Demo- 
crat or a Republican than he is by his being a per- 
sonal friend or foe. The liquor-saloons thus be- 
come the social headquarters of the little knots or 
cliques of men who take most interest in local po- 
litical affairs ; and by an easy transition they become 
the political headquarters when the time for prepar- 
ing for the elections arrives; and, of course, the 
good-will of the owners of the places is thereby pro- 
pitiated, — an important point with men striving to 
control every vote i>ossible. 

The local political clubs also become to a certain 



I 



Machine Politics 139 

extent mutual benefit associations. The men in them 
become pretty intimate with one another ; and in the 
event of one becoming ill, or from any other cause 
thrown out of employment, his fellow-members will 
very often combine to assist him through his trou- 
bles, and quite large sums are frequently raised for 
such a purpose. Of course, this forms an addi- 
tional bond among the members, who become closely 
knit together by ties of companionship, self-interest, 
and mutual interdependence. Very many members 
of these associations come into them without any 
thought of advancing their own fortunes ; they work 
very hard for their party, or rather for the local 
body bearing the party name, but they do it quite 
disinterestedly, and from a feeling akin to that 
which we often see make other men devote their 
time and money to advancing the interests of a yacht 
club or racing stable, although no immediate bene- 
fit can result therefrom to themselves. One such 
man I now call to mind who is by no means well off, 
and is neither an office-seeker nor an office-holder, 
but who regularly every year spends about fifty dol- 
lars at election time for the success of the party, or 
rather the wing of the party, to which he belongs. 
He has a personal pride in seeing his pet candidates 
rolling up large majorities. Men of this stamp also 
naturally feel most enthusiasm for, or animosity 
against, the minor candidates with whom they are 
themselves acquainted. The names at the head of 
the ticket do not, to their minds, stand out with 
much individuality; and while such names usually 



I40 Machine Politics 

command the normal party support, yet very often 
there is an infinitely keener rivalry among the smaller 
politicians over candidates for local offices. I re- 
member, in 1880, a very ardent Democratic ward 
club, many of the members of which in the heat of 
a contest for an Assemblyman coolly swapped off 
quite a number of votes for President in considera- 
tion of votes given to their candidate for the State 
Legislature; and in 1885, in my own district, a local 
Republican club that had a member running for 
alderman, performed a precisely similar feat in re- 
lation to their party's candidate for Governor. A 
Tammany State Senator openly announced in a pub- 
lic speech that it was of vastly more importance to 
Tammany to have one of her own men Mayor of 
New York than it was to have a Democratic Presi- 
dent of the United States. Very many of the lead- 
ers of the rival organizations, who lack the boldness 
to make such a frankly cynical avowal of what their 
party feeling really amounts to, yet in practice, both 
as regards Mayor and as regards all other local offices 
which are politically or pecuniarily of importance, 
act exactly on the theory enunciated by the Tammany 
statesman ; and, as a consequence, in every great elec- 
tion not only is it necessary to have the mass of the 
voters waked up to the importance of the principles 
that are at stake, but, unfortunately, it is also nec- 
essary to see that the powerful local leaders are con- 
vinced that it will be to their own interest to be faith- 
ful to the party ticket. Often there will be intense 
rivalry between two associations or two minor 



Machine Politics 141 

bosses; and one may take up and the other oppose 
the cause of a candidate with an earnestness and 
hearty good-will arising by no means from any feel- 
ing for the man himself, but from the desire to score 
a triumph over the opposition. It not infrequently 
happens that a perfectly good man, who would not 
knowingly suffer the least impropriety in the conduct 
of his canvass, is supported in some one district by a 
little knot of politicians of shady character, who have 
nothing in common with him at all, but who wish 
to beat a rival body that is opposing him, and who 
do not for a moment hesitate to use every device, 
from bribery down, to accomplish their ends. A 
curious incident of this sort came to my knowledge 
while happening to inquire how a certain man be- 
came a Republican. It occurred a good many years 
ago, and thanks to our election laws it could not 
now be repeated in all its details; but affairs similar 
in kind occur at every election. I may preface it by 
stating that the man referred to, whom we will call 
X, ended by pushing himself up in the world, thanks 
to his own industry and integrity, and is now a 
well-to-do private citizen and as good a fellow as 
any one would wish to see. But at the time spoken 
of he was a young laborer, of Irish birth, working 
for his livelihood on the docks and associating with 
his Irish and American fellows. The district where 
he lived was overwhelmingly Democratic, and the 
contests were generally merely factional. One small 
politician, a saloon-keeper named Larry, who had a 
great deal of influence, used to enlist on election day, 



142 Machine Politics ' 

by pay and other compensation, the services of the 
gang of young fellows to which X belonged. On 
one occasion he failed to reward them for their work, 
and in other ways treated them so shabbily as to 
make them very angry, more especially X, who was 
their leader. There was no way to pay Larry off 
until the next election ; but they determined to break 
his influence utterly then, and as the best method for 
doing this they decided to "vote as far away from 
him" as possible, or, in other words, to strain every 
nerve to secure the election of all the candidates 
most opposed to those whom Larry favored. After 
due consultation, it was thought that this could be 
most surely done by supporting the Republican 
ticket. Most of the other bodies of young laborers, 
or, indeed, of young roughs, made common cause 
with X and his friends. Everything was kept very- 
quiet until election day, neither Larry nor the few 
Republicans having an inkling of what was going on. 
It was a rough district, and usually the Republican 
booths were broken up and their ballot-distributers 
driven off early in the day ; but on this occasion, to 
the speechless astonishment of everybody, things 
went just the other way. The Republican ballots 
were distributed most actively, the opposing workers 
were bribed, persuaded, or frightened away, all 
means fair and foul w^ere tried and finally there 
was almost a riot, — the outcome being that the Re- 
publican actually obtained a majority in a district 
where they had never before polled ten per cent of 
the total vote. Such a phenomenon attracted the 



Machine Politics 143 

attention of the big Republican leaders, who after 
some inquiry found it was due to X. To show their 
gratitude and to secure so useful an ally perma- 
nently (for this was before the days of civil-service 
reform), they procured him a lucrative place in the 
New York Post-Office ; and he, in turn, being a man 
of natural parts, at once seized the opportunity, set 
to work to correct the defects of his early education, 
and is now what I have described him to be. 

BOSS METHODS 

A POLITICIAN who becomes an influential local 
leader or boss is, of course, always one with a gen- 
uine talent for intrigue and organization. He owes 
much of his power to the rewards he is able to dis- 
pense. Not only does he procure for his supporters 
positions in the service of the State or city, — as in 
the custom-house, sheriff's office, etc., — but he is 
also able to procure positions for many on horse rail- 
roads, the elevated roads, quarry works, etc. Great 
corporations are peculiarly subject to the attacks of 
demagogues, and they find it much to their interest 
to be on good terms with the leader in each district 
who controls the vote of the Assemblyman and al- 
derman ; and therefore the former is pretty sure that 
a letter of recommendation from him on behalf of 
any applicant for work will receive most favorable 
consideration. The leader is also continually help- 
ing his henchmen out of difficulties, pecuniary and 
otherwise; he lends them a dollar or two now and 
then, helps out, when possible, such of their kinsmen 



144 Machine Politics 

as get into the clutches of the law, gets a hold over 
such of them as have done wrong and are afraid of 
being exposed, and learns to mix judicious bullying 
with the rendering of service. 

But, in addition to all this, the boss owes very 
much of his commanding influence to his social re- 
lations with various bodies of his constituents; and 
it is his work as well as his pleasure to keep up these 
relations. No debutante during her first winter in 
society has a more exacting round of social duties 
to perform than has a prominent ward politician. 
In every ward there are numerous organizations, 
primarily social in character, but capable of being 
turned to good account politically. The Amalga- 
mated Hack-drivers' Union, the Hibernian Republi- 
can Club, the West Side Young Democrats, the Jef- 
ferson C. Mullin Picnic Association, — there are 
twenty such bodies as these in every district, and 
with, at any rate, the master spirits in each and all 
it is necessary for the boss to keep on terms of in- 
timate and, indeed, rather boisterous friendship. 
When the Jefferson C. Mullin society goes on a 
picnic, the average citizen scrupulously avoids its 
neighborhood ; but the boss goes, perhaps with his 
wife, and, moreover, enjoys himself heartily, and is 
hail-fellow-well-met with the rest of the picnickers, 
who, by the way, may be by no means bad fellows ; 
and when election day comes round, the latter, in re- 
turn, no matter to what party they may nominally 
belong, enthusiastically support their friend and 
gitest, on social, not political, grounds. The boss 



Machine Politics 145 

knows every man in his district who can control any 
number of votes: an influential saloon-keeper, the 
owner of a large livery stable, the leader among a 
set of horse-car drivers, a foreman in a machine- 
shop who has a taste for politics, — with all alike he 
keeps up constant and friendly relations. Of course 
this fact does not of itself make the boss a bad man ; 
there are several such I could point out who are ten 
times over better fellows than are the mild-man- 
nered scholars of timorous virtue who criticise them. 
But, on the whole, the qualities tending to make a 
man a successful local political leader under our pres- 
ent conditions are not apt to be qualities that make 
him serve the public honestly or disinterestedly ; and 
in the lower wards, where there is a large, vicious 
population, the condition of politics is often fairly 
appalling, and the boss of the dominant party is gen- 
erally a man of grossly immoral public and private 
character, as any one can satisfy himself by exam- 
ining the testimony taken by the last two or three 
legislative committees that have investigated the af- 
fairs of New York City. In some of these wards 
many of the social organizations with which the 
leaders are obliged to keep on good terms are com- 
posed of criminals, or of the relatives and asso- 
ciates of criminals. The testimony mentioned above 
showed some strange things, I will take at random 
a few instances that occur to me at the moment. 
There was one case of an Assemblyman who served 
several terms in the Legislature, while his private 

business was to carry on corrupt negotiations be- 
7 Vol. I. 



146 Machine Politics 

tween the Excise Commissioners and owners of low 
haunts who wished licenses. The president of a 
powerful semi-political association was by profes- 
sion a burglar, the man who received the goods he 
stole was an alderman. Another alderman was 
elected while his hair was still short from a term in 
State Prison. A school trustee had been convicted 
of embezzlement, and was the associate of criminals. 
A prominent official in the Police Department was 
interested in disreputable houses and gambling sa- 
loons, and was backed politically by their proprietors. 

BEATING THE MACHINE 

In the better wards the difficulty comes in drilling 
a little sense and energy into decent people: they 
either do not care to combine or else refuse to learn 
how. In one district we did at one time and for a 
considerable period get control of affairs and elect 
a set of almost ideal delegates and candidates to the 
various nominating and legislative bodies, and in the 
end took an absolutely commanding, although tempo- 
rary, position in State and even in national politics. 

This was done by the efforts of some twenty or 
thirty young fellows who devoted a large part of 
their time to thoroughly organizing and getting out 
the respectable vote. The moving spirits were all 
active, energetic men, with common-sense, whose 
motives were perfectly disinterested. Some went 
in from principle; others, doubtless, from good-fel- 
lowship or sheer love of the excitement always at- 
tendant upon a political struggle. Our success was 



Machine Politics i47 

due to our absolute freedom from caste spirit. 
Among our chief workers were a Columbia College 
professor, a crack oarsman from the same institu- 
tion, an Irish quarryman, a master carpenter, a rich 
young merchant, the owner of a small cigar store, 
the editor of a Httle German newspaper, and a couple 
of employees from the post-office and custom-house, 
who worked directly against their own seeming in- 
terests. One of our important committees was com- 
posed of a prominent member of a Jewish syna- 
gogue, of the son of a noted Presbyterian clergyman, 
and of a young Catholic lawyer. We won some 
quite remarkable triumphs, for the first time in New 
York politics carrying primaries against the ma- 
chine, and as the result of our most successful strug- 
gle completely revolutionizing the State Com^ention 
held to send delegates to the National Republican 
Convention of 1884, and returning to that body, for 
the first and only time it was ever done, a solid dele- 
gation of Independent Republicans. This was done, 
however, by sheer hard work on the part of a score 
or so of men; the mass of our good citizens, even 
after the victories which they had assisted in win- 
ning, understood nothing about how they were won. 
Many of them actually objected to organizing, ap- 
parently having a confused idea that we could always 
win by what one of their number called a "sponta- 
neous uprising," to which a quiet young fellow in our 
camp grimly responded that he had done a good 
deal of political work in his day, but that he never 
in his life worked so hard and so long as he did to 



148 Machine Politics 

get up the "spontaneous" movement in which we 
were then engaged. 

CONCLUSIONS 
In conclusion, it may be accepted as a fact, how- 
ever unpleasant, that if steady work and much at- 
tention to detail are required, ordinary citizens, to 
whom participation in politics is merely a disagree- 
able duty, will always be beaten by the organized 
army of politicians to whom it is both duty, busi- 
ness, and pleasure, and who are knit together and to 
outsiders by their social relations. On the other 
hand, average citizens do take a spasmodic interest 
in public affairs; and we should therefore so shape 
our governmental system that the action required 
by the voters should be as simple and direct as 
possible, and should not need to be taken any more 
often than is necessary. Governmental power 
should be concentrated in the hands of a very few 
men, who would be so conspicuous that no citizen 
could help knowing all about them ; and the elections 
should not come too frequently. Not one decent 
voter in ten will take the trouble annually to inform 
himself as to the character of the host of petty 
candidates to be balloted for, but he will be sure 
to know all about the mayor, controller, etc. It 
is not to his credit that we can only rely, and that 
without much certainty, upon his taking a spasmodic 
interest in the government that affects his own well 
being; but such is the case, and accordingly we 
ought, as far as possible, to have a system requir- 
ing on his part intermittent and not sustained action. 



VII 

THE VICE-PRESIDENCY AND THE CAM- 
PAIGN OF 1896* 

THE Vice-President is an officer unique in his 
character and functions, or to speak more 
properly, in his want of functions while he remains 
Vice-President, and in his possibility of at any 
moment ceasing to be a functionless official and be- 
coming the head of the whole nation. There is no 
corresponding position in any constitutional gov- 
ernment. Perhaps the nearest analogue is the heir 
apparent in a monarchy. Neither the French Presi- 
dent nor the British Prime Minister has a substitute, 
ready at any moment to take his place, but exercis- 
ing scarcely any authority until his place is taken. 
The history of such an office is interesting, and the 
personality of the incumbent for the time being 
may at any moment become of vast importance. 

The founders of our government — the men who 
did far more than draw up the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, for they put forth the National Constitu- 
tion — in many respects builded very wisely of set 
purpose. In some cases they built wiser than they 
knew. In yet other instances they failed entirely 
to achieve objects for which they had endeavored 

* Review of Reviews, September, 1896. 

(149) 



150 The Campaign of 1896 

to provide by a most elaborate and ingenious gov- 
ernmental arrangement. They distrusted what 
would now be called pure Democracy, and they 
dreaded what we would now call party government. 

Their distrust of Democracy induced them to con- 
struct the electoral college for the choice of a Presi- 
dent, the original idea being that the people should 
elect their best and wisest men, who in turn should, 
untrammeled by outside pressure, elect a President. 
As a matter of fact the functions of the electorate 
have now by time and custom become of little more 
importance than those of so many letter-carriers. 
They deliver the electoral votes of their States just 
as a letter-carrier delivers his mail. But in the 
Presidential contest this year it may be we shall 
see a partial return to the ideals of the men of 
1789; for some of the electors on the Bryan-Sewall- 
Watson ticket may exercise a choice between the 
Vice-Presidential candidates. 

The distrust felt by the founders of the Constitu- 
tion for party government took shape in the scheme 
to provide that the majority party should have the 
foremost place, and the minority party the second 
place, in the national executive. The man who re- 
ceived the greatest number of electoral votes was 
made President, and the man who received the sec- 
ond greatest number was made Vice-President, on 
a theory somewhat akin to that by which certain re- 
formers hope to revolutionize our system of voting 
at the present day. In the early days, under the 
present Constitution, this system resulted in the 



The Campaign of 1896 151 

choice of Adams for President and of his anti-type, 
Jefferson, as Vice-President, the combination being 
about as incongruous as if we should now see Mc- 
Kinley President and either Bryan or Watson Vice- 
President. Even in theory such an arrangement is 
very bad, because under it the Vice-President might 
readily be, and as a matter of fact was, a man utterly 
opposed to all the principles to which the President 
was devoted, so that the arrangement provided in 
the event of the death of the President, not for a 
succession, but for a revolution. The system was 
very soon dropped, and each party nominated its 
own candidates for both positions. But it was many 
years before all the members of the electoral college 
of one party felt obliged to cast the same votes for 
both President and Vice-President, and consequently 
there was a good deal of scrambling and shifting in 
taking the vote. When, however, the parties had 
crystallized into Democratic and Whig, a score of 
years after the disappearance of the Federalists, the 
system of party voting also crystallized. Each party 
then, as a rule, nominated one man for President 
and one for Vice-President, these being voted for 
throughout the nation. This system in turn speed- 
ily produced strange results, some of which remain 
to this day. There are and must be in every party 
factions. The victorious faction may crush out and 
destroy the others, or it may try to propitiate at 
least its most formidable rival. In consequence, the 
custom grew of offering the Vice-Presidency as a 
consolation prize, to be given in many cases to the 



152 The Campaign of 1896 

very men who were most bitterly opposed to the 
nomination of the successful candidate for Presi- 
dent. Sometimes this consolation prize was awarded 
for geographical reasons, sometimes to bring into 
the party men who on points of principle might split 
away because of the principles of the Presidential 
candidate himself, and at other times it was awarded 
for merely factional reasons to some faction which 
did not differ in the least from the dominant faction 
in matters of principles, but had very decided views 
on the question of offices. 

The Presidency being all important, and the Vice- 
Presidency of comparatively little note, the entire 
strength of the contending factions is spent in the 
conflict over the first, and very often a man who 
is most anxious to take the first place will not take 
the second, preferring some other political position. 
It has thus frequently happened that the two candi- 
dates have been totally dissimilar in character and 
even in party principle, though both running on the 
same ticket. Very odd results have followed in 
more than one instance. 

A striking illustration of the evils sometimes 
springing from this system is afforded by what be- 
fell the Whigs after the election and death of the 
elder Harrison. Translated into the terms of the 
politics of continental Europe of to-day, Harrison's 
adherents represented a union between the right and 
the extreme left against the centre. That is, the 
regular Whigs who formed the bulk of his support- 
ers were supplemented by a small body of extremists 



The Campaign of 1896 153 

who, in their poUtical principles, were even more 
ahen to the Whigs than were the bulk of the regular 
Democrats, but who themselves hated these regular 
Democrats with the peculiar ferocity so often felt 
by the extremist for the man who goes far, but not 
quite far enough. In consequence, the President 
represented Whig principles, the Vice-President rep- 
resented a rather extreme form of the very principles 
to which the Whigs were most opposed. The result 
was that when Harrison died the Presidency fell into 
the hands of a man who had but a corporal's guard 
of supporters in the nation, and who proceeded to 
oppose all the measures of the immense majority 
of those who elected him. 

A somewhat similar instance was afforded in the 
case of Lincoln and Johnson. Johnson was put on 
the ticket largely for geographical reasons, and on 
the death of Lincoln he tried to reverse the policy of 
the party which had put him in office. An instance 
of an entirely different kind is afforded by Garfield 
and Arthur. The differences between these two 
party leaders were mainly merely factional. Each 
stood squarely on the platform of the party, and all 
the principles advocated by one were advocated by 
the other ; yet the death of Garfield meant a complete 
overturn in the personnel of the upper Republican 
officials, because Arthur had been nominated ex- 
pressly to placate the group of party leaders who 
most objected to the nomination of Garfield. Arthur 
made a very good President, but the bitterness 
caused by his succession to power nearly tore the 



154 The Campaign of 1896 

party in twain. It will be noted that most of these 
evils arose from the fact that the Vice-President 
under ordinary circumstances possesses so little real 
power. He presides over the Senate and he has in 
Washington a position of marked social importance, 
but his political weight as Vice-President is almost 
nil. There is always a chance that he may become 
President. As this is only a chance, it seems quite 
impossible to persuade politicians to give it proper 
weight. This certainly does not seem right. The 
Vice-President should, so far as possible, represent 
the same views and principles which have secured 
the nomination and election of the President, and 
he should be a man standing well in the councils 
of the party, trusted by his fellow party leaders, and 
able, in the event of any accident to his chief, to take 
up the work of the latter just where it was left. 
The Republican party has this year nominated such 
a man in the person of Mr. Hobart. But nomina- 
tions of this kind have by no means always been the 
rule of recent years. No change of parties, for in- 
stance, could well produce a greater revolution in 
policy than would have been produced at almost any 
time during the last three years if Mr. Cleveland 
had died and Mr. Stevenson had succeeded him. 

One sure way to secure this desired result would 
undoubtedly be to increase the power of the Vice- 
President. He should always be a man who would 
be consulted by the President on every great party 
question. It would be very well if he were given a 
seat in the Cabinet. It might be well if, in addition 



The Campaign of 1896 155 

to his vote in the Senate in the event of a tie, he 
should be given a vote, on ordinary occasions, and 
perchance on occasions a voice in the debates. A 
man of the character of Mr. Hobart is sure to make 
his weight felt in an administration, but the power 
of thus exercising influence should be made official 
rather than personal. 

The present contest offers a striking illustration 
of the way in which the Vice-President ought and 
ought not to be nominated, and to study this it is 
necessary to study not only the way in which the 
different candidates were nominated, but, at least 
in outline, the characters of the candidates them- 
selves. 

For the first time in many years, indeed for the 
first time since parties have fairly crystallized along 
their present lines, there are three parties running, 
two of which support the same Presidential candidate 
but different candidates for the Vice-Presidency. 
Each one of these parties has carried several States 
during the last three or four years. Each party 
has a right to count upon a number of electoral 
votes as its own. Closely though the Democratic 
and Populistic parties have now approximated in 
their principles as enunciated in the platforms of 
Chicago and St. Louis, they yet do differ on cer- 
tain points, and neither would have any chance of 
beating the Republicans without the help of the 
other. The result has been a coalition, yet each 
party to the coalition has retained enough of its 
jealous individuality to make it refuse to accept the 



156 The Campaign of 1896 

candidate of the other for the second position on the 
ticket. 

The Republican party stands on a normal and 
healthy party footing. It has enunciated a definite 
set of principles entirely in accord with its past ac- 
tions. It has nominated on this platform a Presi- 
dent and Vice-President, both of whom are thor- 
ough-going believers in all the party principles set 
forth in the platform upon which they stand. Mr. 
McKinley believes in sound finance, — that is, in a 
currency based upon gold and as good as gold. So 
does Mr. Hobart. Mr. McKinley believes in a pro- 
tective tariff. So does Mr. Hobart. Mr. McKinley 
believes in the only method of preserving orderly 
liberty, — that is, in seeing that the laws are enforced 
at whatever cost. So does Mr. Hobart. In short, 
Mr. Hobart stands for precisely the same principles 
that are represented by Mr. McKinley. He is a 
man of weight in the community, who has had wide 
experience both in business and in politics. He is 
taking an active part in the campaign, and he will 
be a power if elected to the Vice-Presidency. All 
the elements which have rallied behind Mr. McKin- 
ley are just as heartily behind Mr. Hobart. The 
two represent the same forces, and they stand for a 
party with a coherent organization and a definite 
purpose, to the carrying out of which they are 
equally pledged. 

It will be a matter of much importance to the na- 
tion that the next Vice-President should stand for 
some settled policy. It is an unhealthy thing to 



The Campaign of 1896 157 

have the Vice-President and President represented 
by principles so far apart that the succession of one 
to the place of the other means a change as radical 
as any possible party overturn. The straining and 
dislocation of our governmental institutions was 
very great when Tyler succeeded Harrison and 
Johnson succeeded Lincoln. In each case the ma- 
jority of the party that had won the victory felt that 
it had been treated with scandalous treachery, for 
Tyler grew to be as repulsive to the Whigs as Polk 
himself, and the Republicans could scarcely have 
hated Seymour more than they hated Johnson. The 
Vice-President has a three-fold relation. First to 
the Administration; next as presiding officer in the 
Senate, where he should be a man of dignity and 
force; and third in his social position, for socially 
he ranks second to the President alone. Mr. Mor- 
ton was in every way an admirable Vice-President 
under General Harrison, and had he succeeded to 
the Presidential chair therewould have been no break 
in the great policies which were being pushed for- 
ward by the Administration. But during Mr. Cleve- 
land's two incumbencies Messrs. Hendricks and 
Stevenson have represented, not merely hostile fac- 
tions, but principles and interests from which he 
was sundered by a gulf quite as great as that which 
divided him from his normal party foes. Mr. 
Sewall would make a colorless Vice-President, and 
were he at any time to succeed Mr. Bryan in the 
White House would travel Mr. Bryan's path only 
with extreme reluctance and under duress. Mr. 



158 The Campaign of 1896 

Watson would be a more startling, more attractive, 
and more dangerous figure, for if he got the chance 
he would lash the nation with a whip of scorpions, 
while Mr. Bryan would be content with the torture 
of ordinary thongs. 

Finally, Mr. Hobart would typify as strongly as 
Mr. McKinley himself what was best in the Repub- 
lican party and in the nation, and would stand as one 
of the known champions of his party on the very 
questions at issue in the present election. He is a 
man whose advice would be sought by all who are 
prominent in the Administration. In short, he would 
be the kind of man whom the electors are certain 
to choose as Vice-President if they exercise their 
choice rationally. 

The men who left the Republican party because 
of the nomination of McKinley would have left it 
just as quickly if Hobart had been nominated. 
They do not believe in sound finance, and though 
many of the bolters object to anarchy and favor 
protection, they feel that in this crisis their per- 
sonal desires must be repressed and that they are 
conscientiously bound to support the depreciated dol- 
lar even at the cost of incidentally supporting the 
principles of a low tariff and the doctrine that a mob 
should be allowed to do what it likes with immunity. 
There are many advocates of clipped or depreciated 
money who are rather sorry to see the demand for 
such currency coupled with a demand for more law- 
lessness and an abandonment by the government 
of the police functions which are the essential attri- 



The Campaign of 1896 159 

butes of civilization; but they have overcome their 
reluctance, feeling that on the whole it is more im- 
portant that the money of the nation should be un- 
sound than that its laws should be obeyed. People 
who feel this way are just as much opposed to Mr. 
Hobart as to Mr. McKinley. They object to the 
platform upon which the two men stand, and they 
object as much to the character of one man as to 
the character of the other. They are repelled by 
McKinley's allegiance to the cause of sound money, 
and find nothing to propitiate them in Hobart's 
uncompromisingly honest attitude on the same ques- 
tion. There is no reason whatever why any voter 
who would wish to vote against the one should 
favor the other or vice versa. 

When we cross the political line all this is 
changed. On the leading issue of the campaign 
the entire triangle of candidates are a unit. Mr. 
Bryan, the nominee for the Presidency, and Messrs. 
Sewall and Watson, the nominees for the Vice- 
Presidency, are almost equally devoted adherents 
of the light-weight dollar and of a currency which 
shall not force a man to repay what he has bor- 
rowed, and shall punish the wrong-headed laborer, 
who expects to be paid his wages in money worth 
something, as heavily as the business man or farmer 
who is so immoral as to wish to pay his debts. All 
three are believers in that Old-World school of 
finance which appears under such protean changes 
of policy, always desiring the increase of the circu- 
lating medium, but differing as to the means, which 



i6o The Campaign of 1896 

in one age takes the form of putting base metal in 
with the good, or of cHpping the good, and in an- 
other assumes the guise of fiat money, or the free 
coinage of silver. On this currency question they 
are substantially alike, agreeing (as one of their 
adherents picturesquely put it, in arguing in favor of 
that form of abundant currency which has as its 
highest exponent the money of the late Confed- 
eracy) that "the money which was good enough for 
the soldiers of Washington is good enough for us." 
As a matter of fact the soldiers of Washington were 
not at all grateful for the money which the loud- 
mouthed predecessors of Mr. Bryan and his kind 
then thought "good enough" for them. The money 
with which the veterans of Washington were paid 
was worth two cents on the dollar, and as yet neither 
Mr. Bryan Mr. Sewall, nor Mr. Watson has ad- 
vocated a two-cent copper dollar. Still, they are 
striving toward this ideal, and in their advocacy of 
the fifty-cent dollar they are one. 

But beyond this they begin to differ. Mr. Sewall 
distinctly sags behind the leader of the spike team, 
Mr. Bryan, and still more distinctly behind his rival, 
or running mate, or whatever one may choose to call 
him, the Hon. Thomas Watson. There is far more 
regard for the essential fitness of things in a ticket 
which contains Mr. Bryan and Mr. Watson than 
one which contains Mr. Bryan and Mr. Sewall. Mr. 
Watson is a man of Mr. Bryan's type, only a little 
more so. But Mr. Sewall is of a different type, and 
possesses many attributes which must make associa- 



The Campaign of 1896 161 

tion with him exceedingly painful, not merely to Mr. 
Watson, but to Mr. Bryan himself. He is a well-to- 
do man. Indeed in many communities he would be 
called a rich man. He is a banker, a railroad man, 
a shipbuilder, and has been successful in business. 
Now if Mr. Bryan and Mr. Watson really stand for 
any principle it is hostility to this kind of success. 
Thrift, industry, and business energy are qualities 
quite incompatible with true Populistic feeling ; pay- 
ment of debts, like the suppression of riots, is ab- 
horrent to the Populistic mind. Such conduct strikes 
the Populist as immoral. Mr. Bryan made his ap- 
pearance in Congress with two colleagues elected on 
the same ticket, one of whom stated to the present 
writer that no honest man ever earned $5,000 a 
year ; that whoever got that amount stole it. Mr. 
Sewall has earned many times $5,000 a year. He 
is a prosperous capitalist. Populism never prospers 
save where men are unprosperous, and your true 
Populist is especially intolerant of business success. 
If a man is a successful business man he at once 
calls him a plutocrat. 

He makes only one exception. A miner or specu- 
lator in mines may be many times a millionaire and 
yet remain in good standing in the Populist party. 
The Populist has ineradicably fixed in his mind the 
belief that silver is a cheap metal, and that silver 
money is, while not fiat money, still a long step to- 
ward it. Silver is connected in his mind with scal- 
ing down debts, the partial repudiation of obliga- 
tions, and other measures aimed at those odious 



1 62 The Campaign of 1896 

moneyed tyrants who lend money to persons who 
insist upon borrowing, or who have put their ill- 
gotten gains in savings banks and kindred wicked in- 
stitutions for the encouragement of the vice of thrift. 
These pleasurable associations quite outweigh, with 
the Populist, the fact that the silver man himself is 
rich. He is even for the moment blind to the further 
fact that these pro-silver men, like Senator Stewart, 
Governor Altgeld, and their compeers, strenuously 
insist that the obligations to themselves shall be 
liquidated in gold; indeed this particular idiosyn- 
crasy of the silver leaders is not much frowned upon 
by the bulk of the Populists, because it has at least 
the merit of savoring strongly of "doing" one's 
creditors. Not even the fact that rich silver mine 
owners may have earned their money honestly can 
outweigh the other fact that they champion a species 
of currency which will make most thrifty and hon- 
est men poorer, in the minds of the truly logical 
Populist. 

But Mr. Sewall has ijo fictitious advantage in the 
way of owing his wealth to silver. He has made 
his money precisely as the most loathed reprobate of 
Wall Street — or of New York, which the average 
Populist regards as synonymous with Wall Street — • 
has made his. The average Populist does not draw 
fine distinctions. There are in New York, as in other 
large cities, scoundrels of great wealth who have 
made their money by means skilfully calculated to 
come just outside the line of criminality. There are 
other men who have made their money exactly as 



The Campaign of 1896 163 

the successful miner or farmer makes his, — that is, 
by the exercise of shrewdness, business daring, en- 
ergy and thrift. But the PopuHst draws no Hne of 
division between these two classes. They have made 
money, and that is enough. One may have built 
railroads and the other have wrecked them, but they 
are both railroad men in his eyes, and that is all. 
One may have swindled his creditors, and the other 
built up a bank which has been of incalculable bene- 
fit to all who have had dealings with it, but to the 
Populist they are both gold bugs, and as such nox- 
ious. Mr. Sewall is the type of man the contempla- 
tion of which usually throws a Populist orator into 
spasms. But it happens that he believes in free sil- 
ver, just as other very respectable men believe in 
spirit rapping, or the faith-cure, or Buddhism, or 
pilgrimages to Lourdes, or the foot of a graveyard 
rabbit. There are very able men and very lovely 
women who believe in each or all of these, and there 
are a much larger number who believe in free sil- 
ver. Had they lived in the days of Sparta they 
would have believed in free iron, iron coin being at 
that time the cheapest circulating medium, the adop- 
tion of which would give the greatest expansion of 
the currency. But they have been dragged on by 
the slow procession of the centuries, and now they 
only believe in free silver. It is a belief which is 
compatible with all the domestic virtues, and even 
occasionally with very good capacities as a public 
servant. Mr. Sewall doubtless stands as one of these 
men. He can hardly be happy, planted firmly as he 



164 The Campaign of 1896 

is, on the Chicag-o platform. In the minds of most 
thrifty, hard-working men, who are given to think- 
ing at all about public questions, the free-silver plank 
is very far from being the most rotten of the many 
rotten planks put together with such perverted skill 
by the Chicago architects. A platform which de- 
clares in favor of free and unlimited rioting and 
which has the same strenuous objection to the exer- 
cise of the police power by the general government 
that is felt in the circles presided over by Herr Most, 
Eugene V. Debs, and all the people whose pictures 
appear in the detective bureaus of our great cities, 
can not appeal to persons who have gone beyond 
the unpolished-stone period of civilization. 

The men who object to what they style "govern- 
ment by injunction" are, as regards the essential 
principles of government, in hearty sympathy with 
their remote skin-clad ancestors who lived in caves, 
fought one another with stone-headed axes, and 
ate the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros. They 
are interesting as representing a geological survival, 
but they are dangerous whenever there is the least 
chance of their making the principles of this ages- 
buried past living factors in our present life. They 
are not in sympathy with men of good minds and 
sound civic morality. It is not a nice thing to wish 
to pay one's debts in coins worth fifty cents on the 
dollar, but it is a much less nice thing to wish to 
plunge one's country into anarchy by providing that 
the law shall only protect the lawless and frown 
scornfully on the law-abiding. There is a good deal 



The Campaign of 1896 165 

of mushy sentiment in the world, and there are al- 
ways a certain number of people whose minds are 
weak and whose emotions are strong and who ef- 
fervesce with sympathy toward any man who does 
wrong, and with indignation against any man who 
chastises the criminal for having done wrong. These 
emotionalists, moreover, are always reinforced by 
that large body of men who themselves wish to do 
wrong, and who are not sentimental at all, but, on 
the contrary, very practical. It is rarely that these 
two classes control a great political party, but at Chi- 
cago this became an accomplished fact. 

Furthermore, the Chicago Convention attacked 
the Supreme Court. Again this represents a species 
of atavism, — that is, of recurrence to the ways of 
thought of remote barbarian ancestors. Savages do 
not like an independent and upright judiciary. They 
want the judge to decide their way, and if he does 
not, they want to behead him. The Populists ex- 
perience much the same emotions when they realize 
that the judiciary stands between them and plunder. 

Now on all these points Mr. Sewall can hardly 
feel complete sympathy with his temporary allies. 
He is very anxious that the Populists shall vote for 
him for Vice-President, and of course he feels a 
kindly emotion toward those who do intend to vote 
for him. He would doubtless pardon much heresy 
of political belief in any member of the electoral 
college who feels that Sewall is his friend, not 
Watson, — Codlin, not Short. He has, of course, 
a vein of the erratic in his character, or otherwise 



1 66 The Campaign of 1896 

he would not be in such company at all, and would 
have no quality that would recommend him to them. 
But on the whole his sympathies must lie with the 
man who saves money rather than with the man 
who proposes to take away the money when it has 
been saved, and with the policeman who arrests a 
violent criminal rather than with the criminal. Such 
sympathy puts him at a disadvantage in the Popu- 
list camp. He is loud in his professions of be- 
lief in the remarkable series of principles for which 
he is supposed to stand, but his protestations ring 
rather hollow. The average supporter of Bryan 
doubtless intends to support Sewall, for he thinks 
him an unimportant tail to the Bryan kite. But, 
though unimportant, he regards him with a slight 
feeling of irritation, as being at the best a rather 
ludicrous contrast to the rest of the kite. He con- 
tributes no element of strength to the Bryan ticket, 
for other men who work hard and wish to enjoy 
the fruits of their toil simply regard him as a rene- 
gade, and the average Populist, or Populistic Dem- 
ocrat, does not like him, and accepts him simply 
because he fears not doing so may jeopardize 
Bryan's chances. He is in the uncomfortable posi- 
tion always held by the respectable theorist who 
gets caught in a revolutionary movement and has 
to wedge nervously up into the front rank with 
the gentlemen who are not troubled by any of his 
scruples, and who really do think that it is all very 
fine and glorious. In fact Mr. Sewall is much the 
least picturesque and the least appropriate figure on 



The Campaign of 1896 167 

the platform or platforms upon which Mr. Bryan is 
standing. 

Mr. Watson, whose enemies now call him a 
Georgia cracker, is in reality a far more suitable 
companion for Mr. Bryan in such a contest. It 
must be said, however, that if virtue always received 
its reward Mr. Watson and not Mr. Bryan would 
stand at the head of the ticket. In the language 
of mathematicians Mr. Watson merely represents 
Mr. Bryan raised several powers. The same is 
true of the Populist as compared to the Democratic 
platform. Mr. Bryan may affect to believe that free 
silver does represent the ultimate goal, and that 
his friends do not intend to go further in the direc- 
tion of fiat money. Mr. Watson's friends, the mid- 
dle-of-the-road Populists, are much more fearless 
and much more logical. They are willing to accept 
silver as a temporary makeshift, but they want a 
currency based on corn and cotton next, and ulti- 
mately a currency based on the desires of the people 
who issue it. The statesmanlike utterance of that 
great financier, Mr. Bryan's chief rival for the nom- 
ination and at present his foremost supporter, Mr. 
Bland, to the effect that he would "wipe out the 
national debt as with a sponge," meets with their 
cordial approval as far as it goes, but they object 
to the qualification before the word "debt." In 
wiping out debts they do not wish to halt merely at 
the national debt. The Populists indorsed Bryan as 
the best they could get; but they hated Sewall so 
that they took the extraordinary step of nominating 



i68 The Campaign of 1896 

the Vice-President before the President so as to 
make sure of a really acceptable man in the person 
of Watson. 

With Mr. Bryan denunciation of the gold bug 
and the banker is largely a mere form of intellectual 
entertainment; but with Mr. Watson it represents 
an almost ferocious conviction. Some one has said 
that Mr. Watson like Mr. Tillman, is an embodied 
retribution on the South for having failed to educate 
the cracker, the poor white who gives him his 
strength. It would ill beseem any dweller in cities 
of the North, especially any dweller in the city of 
Tammany, to reproach the South with having 
failed to educate anybody. But Mr. Watson is 
certainly an awkward man for a community to 
develop. He is infinitely more in earnest than is 
Mr. Bryan. Mr. Watson's followers belong to that 
school of Southern Populists who honestly believe 
that the respectable and commonplace people who 
own banks, railroads, dry-goods stores, factories, 
and the like, are persons with many of the mental 
and social attributes that unpleasantly distinguished 
Heliogabalus, Nero, Caligula, and other worthies 
of later Rome. Not only do they believe this, but 
they say it with appalling frankness. They are very 
sincere as a rule, or at least the rank and file are. 
They are also very suspicious. They distrust any- 
thing they can not understand; and as they under- 
stand but little this opens a very wide field for dis- 
trust. They are apt to be emotionally religious. 
If not, they are then at least atheists of an archaic 



The Campaign of 1896 169 

type. Refinement and comfort they are apt to con- 
sider quite as objectionable as immorality. That 
a man should change his clothes in the evening, 
that he should dine at any other hour than noon, 
impress these good people as being symptoms of 
depravity instead of merely trivial. A taste for 
learning and cultivated friends, and a tendency to 
bathe frequently, cause them the deepest suspicion. 
A well-to-do man they regard with jealous distrust, 
and if they can not be well-to-do themselves, at least 
they hope to make matters uncomfortable for those 
that are. They possess many strong, rugged vir- 
tues, but they are quite impossible politically, because 
they always confound the essentials and the non- 
essentials, and though they often make war on vice, 
they rather prefer making war upon prosperity and 
refinement. 

Mr. Watson was in a sense born out of place 
when he was born in Georgia, for in Georgia the 
regular Democrary, while it has accepted the prin- 
ciples of the Populists, has made war on their person- 
nel, and in every way strives to press them down. 
Far better for Mr. Watson would it have been 
could he have been born in the adjacent State of 
South Carolina, where the Populists swallowed the 
Democrats with a gulp. Senator Tillman, the great 
Populist or Democratic orator from South Caro- 
lina, possesses an untrammeled tongue any middle- 
of-the-road man would envy; and moreover Mr. 
Tillman's brother has been frequently elected to 
Congress upon the issue that he never wore either 
S Vol. I. 



lyo The Campaign of 1896 

an overcoat or an undershirt, an issue which any 
Populist statesman finds readily comprehensible, and 
which he would recognize at first glance as being 
strong before the people. It needs a certain amount 
of mental subtlety to appreciate that it is for one's 
interest to support a man because he is honest and 
has broad views about coast defences and the navy, 
and other similar subjects; but it does not need any 
mind at all to have one's prejudices stirred in favor 
of a statesman whose claim to the title rests upon 
his indifference to the requirements of civilized 
dress. 

Altogether Mr. Watson, with his sincerity, his 
frankness, his extreme suspiciousness, his distrust of 
anything he can not understand, and the feeling he 
encourages against all the elegancies and decencies 
of civilized life, is an interesting personage. He 
represents the real thing, while Bryan after all is 
more or less a sham and a compromise. Mr. Wat- 
son would, at a blow, destroy all banks and bankers, 
with a cheerful, albeit vague, belief that thereby 
he was in some abstruse way benefiting the people 
at large. And he would do this with the simple 
sincerity and faith of an African savage who tries 
to benefit his tribe by a sufficiency of human sacri- 
fices. But Mr. Biyan would be beset by ugly doubts 
when he came to put into effect all the mischievous 
belief of his followers, and Mr. Sewall would 
doubtless be frankly miserable if it ever became 
necessary for him to take a lead in such matters. 
Mr. Watson really ought to be the first man on the 



The Campaign of 1896 171 

ticket, with Mr. Bryan second; for he is much the 
superior in boldness, in thorough-going acceptance 
of his principles according to their logical conclu- 
sions, and in sincerity of faith. It is impossible not 
to regret that the Democrats and Populists should 
not have put forward in the first place the man 
who genuinely represents their ideas. 

However, it is even doubtful whether Mr. Wat- 
son will receive the support to which he is entitled 
as a Vice-Presidential candidate. In the South the 
Populists have been so crushed under the heel of the 
Democrats, and have bitten that heel with such 
eager venom, that they dislike entering into a coali- 
tion with them ; but in the South the Democrats will 
generally control the election machinery. In the far 
West, and generally in those States where the 
Populist wing of the new alliance is ascendant, the 
Populists have no especial hatred of the Democrats. 
They know that their principles are substantially 
identical, and they think it best to support the man 
who seems to represent the majority faction among 
the various factions that stand behind Bryan. 

As a consequence of this curious condition of 
affairs there are several interesting possibilities open. 
The electoral college consists of the men elected at 
the polls in the various States to record the decrees 
of the majorities in those States, and it has grown ■ 
to be an axiom of politics that they must merely 
register the will of the men who elected them. But 
it does seem possible that in the present election some 
of the electors may return to the old principles of 



172 The Campaign of 1896 

a century ago and exercise at least a limited dis- 
cretion in casting their votes. In a State like Ne- 
braska, for instance, it looks as though it would be 
possible that the electoral ticket on the anti-Repub- 
lican side would be composed of four Bryan and 
Watson men and four Bryan and Sewall men. Now 
in the event of Bryan having more votes than Mc- 
Kinley — that is, in the event of the country showing 
strong Bedlamite tendencies next November — it 
might be that a split between Sewall and Watson 
would give a plurality to Hobart, and in such event 
it is hardly conceivable that some of the electors 
would not exercise their discretion by changing their 
votes. If they did not, we might then again see a 
return to the early and profoundly interesting prac- 
tice of our fathers and witness a President chosen 
by one party and a Vice-President by the other. 

I wish it to be distinctly understood, however, 
that these are merely interesting speculations as to 
what might occur in a hopelessly improbable contin- 
gency. I am a good American, with a profound 
belief in my countrymen, and I have no idea that 
they will deliberately lower themselves to a level be- 
neath that of a South American Republic, by vot- 
ing for the farrago of sinister nonsense which the 
Populistic-Democratic politicians at Chicago chose 
to set up as embodying the principles of their party, 
and for the amiable and windy demagogue who 
stands upon that platform. Many entirely honest 
and intelligent men have been misled by the silver 
talk, and have for the moment joined the ranks 



The Campaign of 1896 173 

of the ignorant, the vicious, and the wrong- 
headed. These men of character and capacity are 
bhnded by their own misfortunes, or their own 
needs, or else they have never fairly looked into the 
matter for themselves, being, like most men, whether 
in "gold" or "silver" communities, content to fol- 
low the opinion of those they are accustomed to 
trust. After full and fair inquiry these men, I am 
sure, whether they live in Maine, in Tennessee, or 
in Oregon, will come out on the side of honest 
money. The shiftless and vicious and the honest 
but hopelessly ignorant and puzzle-headed voters 
can not be reached ; but the average farmer, the aver- 
age business man, the average workman — in short, 
the average American — will always stand up for 
honesty and decency when he can once satisfy him- 
self as to the side on which they are to be found. 



ADMINISTRATION 



CIVIL SERVICE 



SIX YEARS OF CIVIL SERVICE REFORM* 

NO question of internal administration is so im- 
portant to the United States as the question 
of Civil Service reform, because the spoils system, 
which can only be supplanted through the agencies 
which have found expression in the act creating the 
Civil Service Commission, has been for seventy 
years the most potent of all the forces tending to 
bring about the degradation of our politics. No re- 
public can permanently endure when its politics are 
corrupt and base; and the spoils system, the appli- 
cation in political life of the degrading doctrine that 
to the victor belong the spoils, produces corruption 
and degradation. The man who is in politics for the 
offices might just as well be in politics for the money 
he can get for his vote, so far as the general good 
is concerned. When the then Vice-President of the 
United States, Mr. Hendricks, said that he "wished 
to take the boys in out of the cold to warm their 
toes," thereby meaning that he wished to distribute 
offices among the more active heelers, to the raptur- 
ous enthusiasm of the latter, he uttered a sentiment 
which was morally on the same plane with a wish to 

^Scribner's Magazine, August, 1895. 

(177) 



1 78 Civil Service Reform 

give "the boys" five dollars apiece all around for 
their votes, and fifty dollars apiece when they showed 
themselves sufficiently active in bullying, bribing, 
and cajoling other voters. Such a sentiment should 
bar any man from public life, and will bar him when- 
ever the people grow to realize that the worst ene- 
mies of the Republic are the demagogue and the 
corruptionist. The spoils-monger and spoils-seeker 
invariably breed the bribe-taker and bribe-giver, the 
embezzler of public funds and the corrupter of 
voters. Civil Service reform is not merely a move- 
ment to better the public service. It achieves this 
end too ; but its main purpose is to raise the tone of 
public life, and it is in this direction that its effects 
have been of incalculable good to the whole com- 
munity. 

For six years, from May, 1889, to May, 1895, I 
was a member of the National Civil Service Com- 
mission, and it seems to me to be of interest to show 
exactly what has been done to advance the law 
and what to hinder its advancement during these 
six years, and who have been the more prominent 
among its friends and foes. I wish to tell "the ad- 
ventures of Philip on his way through the world," 
and show who robbed him, who helped him, and who 
passed him by. It would take too long to give the 
names of all our friends, and it is not worth while 
to more than allude to most of our foes and to most 
of those who were indifferent to us ; but a few of the 
names should be preserved and some record made of 
the fights that have been fought and won and of the 



Civil Service Reform 179 

way in which, by fits and starts, and with more than 
one setback, the general advance has been made. 

Of the Commission itself little need be said. 
When I took office the only Commissioner was Mr. 
Charles Lyman, of Connecticut, who resigned when 
I did. Honorable Hugh S. Thompson, ex-Governor 
of South Carolina, was made Commissioner at the 
same time that I was, and after serving for three 
years resigned. He was succeeded by Mr. George 
D. Johnston, of Louisiana, who was removed by the 
President in November, 1893, being replaced by 
Mr. John R. Procter, the former State Geologist of 
Kentucky, who is still serving. The Commission 
has never varied a hand's breadth from its course 
throughout this time ; and Messrs. Thompson, Proc- 
ter, Lyman, and myself were always a unit in all 
important questions of policy and principle. Our 
aim was always to procure the extension of the clas- 
sified service as rapidly as possible and to see that 
the law was administered thoroughly and fairly. 
The Commission does not have the power that it 
should, and in many instances there have been vio- 
lations or evasions of the law in particular bureaus 
or departments which the Commission was not able 
to prevent. In every case, however, we made a reso- 
lute fight, and gave the widest publicity to the 
wrong-doing. Often, even where we have been un- 
able to win the actual fight in which we were en- 
gaged, the fact of our having made it, and the 
further fact that we were ready to repeat it on 
provocation, has put a complete stop to the repe- 



i8o Civil Service Reform 

tition of the offence. As a consequence, while there 
have been plenty of violations and evasions of the 
law, yet their proportion was really very small, tak- 
ing into account the extent of the service. In the 
aggregate it is doubtful if one per cent of all the 
employees have been dismissed for political reasons. 
In other words, where under the spoils system a hun- 
dred men would have been turned out, under the 
Civil Service Law, as administered under our super- 
vision, ninety-nine men were kept in. 

In the administration of the law very much de- 
pends upon the Commission. Good heads of depart- 
ments and bureaus will administer it well anyhow; 
but not only the bad men, but also the large class 
of men who are weak rather than bad, are sure to 
administer the law poorly unless kept well up to the 
mark. The public should exercise a most careful 
scrutiny over the appointment and over the acts of 
Civil Service Commissioners, for there is no office 
the effectiveness of which depends so much upon the 
way in which the man himself chooses to construe 
his duties. A Commissioner can keep within the 
letter of the law and do his routine work and yet ac- 
complish absolutely nothing in the way of securing 
the observance of the law. The Commission, to do 
useful work, must be fearless and vigilant. It must 
actively interfere whenever wrong is done, and must 
take all the steps that can be taken to secure the pun- 
ishment of the wrong-doer and to protect the em- 
ployee threatened with molestation. 

This course was consistently followed by the Com- 



Civil Service Reform i8i 

mission throughout my connection with it. I was 
myself a RepubHcan from the North. Messrs. 
Thompson and Procter were from the South, and 
were both Democrats who had served in the Con- 
federate armies ; and it would be impossible for any 
one to desire as associates two public men with 
higher ideals of duty, or more resolute in their ad- 
herence to those ideals. It is unnecessary to say 
that in all our dealings there was no single instance 
wherein the politics of any person or the political 
significance, of any action was so much as taken 
into account in any case that arose. The force of the 
Commission itself was all chosen through the com- 
petitive examinations, and included men of every 
party and from every section of the country; 
and I do not believe that in any public or private 
office of the size it would be possible to find 
a more honest, efficient, and coherent body of 
workers. 

From the beginning of the present system each 
President of the United States has been its friend, 
but no President has been a radical Civil Service re- 
former. Presidents Arthur, Harrison, and Cleve- 
land have all desired to see the service extended, and 
to see the law well administered. No one of them 
has felt willing or able to do all that the reformers 
asked, or to pay much heed to their wishes save as 
regards that portion of the service to which the law 
actually applied. Each has been a sincere party man, 
who has felt strongly on such questions as those of 
the tariff, of finance, and of our foreign policy, and 



1 82 Civil Service Reform 

each has been obHged to conform more or less closely 
to the wishes of his party associates and fellow party 
leaders ; and, of course, these party leaders, and the 
party poHticians generally, wished the offices to be 
distributed as they had been ever since Andrew 
Jackson became President. In consequence the of- 
fices outside the protection of the law have still been 
treated, under every Administration, as patronage, to 
be disposed of in the interest of the dominant party. 
An occasional exception was made here and there. 
The Postmaster at New York, a Republican, was re- 
tained by President Cleveland in his first Adminis- 
tration, and the Postmaster of Charleston, a Demo- 
crat, was retained by President Harrison ; but, with 
altogether insignificant exceptions the great bulk 
of the non-classified places have been changed for 
political reasons by each Administration, the office- 
holders politically opposed to the Administration 
being supplanted or succeeded by political adher- 
ents of the Administration. 

Where the change has been complete it does not 
matter much whether it was made rapidly or slowly. 
Thus, the fourth-class postmasterships were looted 
more rapidly under the Administration of President 
Harrison than under that of President Cleveland, 
and the consular service more rapidly under Presi- 
dent Cleveland than under President Harrison; but 
the final result was the same in both cases. Indeed, I 
think that the brutality which accompanied the great- 
er speed was in some ways of service to the country, 
for it directed attention to the iniquity and folly 



Civil Service Reform 183 

of the system, and emphasized, in the minds of de- 
cent citizens, the fact that appointments and re- 
movals for poHtical reasons in places where the 
duties are wholly non-political can not be defended 
by any man who looks at public affairs from the 
proper standpoint. 

The advance has been made purely on two lines, 
that is, by better enforcement of the law, and by 
inclusion under the law, or under some system sim- 
ilar in its operations, of a portion of the service 
previously administered in accordance with the spoils 
theory. Under President Arthur the first classifica- 
tion was made, which included 14,000 places. Un- 
der President Cleveland, during his first term, the 
limits of the classified service were extended by the 
inclusion of 7,000 additional places. During Presi- 
dent Harrison's term the limit was extended by the 
inclusion of about eight thousand places; and hith- 
erto during President Cleveland's second term, by 
the inclusion of some six thousand places; in addi- 
tion to which the natural growth of the service has 
been such that the total number of offices now classi- 
fied is over 40,000, Moreover, the Secretary of the 
Navy under President Harrison, introduced into the 
navy yards a system of registration of laborers, 
which secures the end desired by the Commission; 
and Secretary Herbert has continued this system. It 
only rests, however, upon the will of the Secretary 
of the Navy; and as we can not expect always to 
have Secretaries as clear-sighted as Messrs. Tracy 
and Herbert, it is most desirable that this branch of 



184 Civil Service Reform 

the service should be put directly under the control 
of the Commission. 

The Cabinet officers, though often not Civil Ser- 
vice reformers to start w^ith, usually become such be- 
fore their terms of office expire. This was true, 
without exception, of all the Cabinet officers with 
whom I was personally brought into contact while 
on the Commission. Moreover, from their position 
and their sense of responsibility they are certain to 
refrain from violating the law themselves and to 
try to secure at least a formal compliance with its 
demands on the part of their subordinates. In most 
cases it is necessary, however, to goad them contin- 
ually to see that they do not allow their subordi- 
nates to evade the law; and it is very difficult to 
get either the President or the head of a depart- 
ment to punish these subordinates when they have 
evaded it. There is not much open violation of the 
law, because such violation can be reached through 
the courts ; but in the small offices and small bureaus 
there is often a chance for an unscrupulous head 
of the office or bureau to persecute his subordinates 
who are politically opposed to him into resigning, 
or to trump up charges against them on which they 
can be dismissed. If this is done in a sufficient 
number of cases, men of the opposite political party 
think that it is useless to enter the examinations; 
and by staying out they leave the way clear for the 
offender to get precisely the men he wishes for the 
eligible registers. Cases like this continually oc- 
cur, and the Commission has to be vigilant in de- 



Civil Service Reform i8^ 

tecting and exposing them, and in demanding their 
punishment by the head of the office. The offender 
always, of course, insists that he has been misunder- 
stood, and in most cases he can prepare quite a 
specious defence. As he is of the same political 
faith as the head of the department, and as he is 
certain to be backed by influential politicians, the 
head of the department is usually loth to act 
against him, and, if possible, will let him off with, at 
most, a warning not to repeat the offence. In some 
departments this kind of evasion has never been 
tolerated; and where the Commission has the force 
under its eye, as in the departments at Washington, 
the chance of injustice is minimized. Nevertheless, 
there have been considerable abuses of this kind, 
notably in the custom-houses and post-offices, 
throughout the time I have been at Washington. 
So far as the Post-Office Department was con- 
cerned, the abuses were more flagrant under Presi- 
dent Harrison's Postmaster-General, Mr. Wana- 
maker; but in the Treasury Department they were 
more flagrant under President Cleveland's Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, Mr. Carlisle. 

Congress has control of the appropriations for the 
Commission, and as it can not do its work without 
an ample appropriation the action of Congress is vital 
to its welfare. Many, even of the friends of the 
system in the country at large, are astonishingly ig- 
norant of who the men are who have battled most 
effectively for the law and for good government in 
either the Senate or the Lower House. It is not 



1 86 Civil Service Reform 

only necessary that a man shall be good and possess 
the desire to do decent things, but it is also neces- 
sary that he shall be courageous, practical, and effi- 
cient, if his work is to amount to anything. There 
is a good deal of rough-and-tumble fighting in Con- 
gress as there is in all our political life, and a man 
is entirely out of place in it if he does not possess the 
virile qualities, and if he fails to show himself ready 
and able to hit back when assailed. Moreover, he 
must be alert, vigorous, and intelligent, if he is going 
to make his work count. The friends of the Civil 
Service Law, like the friends of all other laws, would 
be in a bad way if they had to rely solely upon the 
backing of the timid good. During the last six years 
there have been, as there always are, a number of 
men in the House who believe in the Civil Service 
Law, and who vote for it if they understand the 
question and are present when it comes up, but who 
practically count for very little one way or the other, 
because they are timid or flighty, or are lacking in 
capacity for leadership or ability to see a point and 
to put it strongly before their associates. 

There is need of further legislation to perfect and 
extend the law and the system; but Congress has 
never been willing seriously to consider a proposition 
looking to this extension. Bills to provide for the 
appointment of fourth-class postmasters have been 
introduced by Senator Lodge and others, but have 
never come to anything. Indeed, but once has a 
measure of this kind been reported from committee 
and fought for in either House. This was in the last 



Civil Service Reform 187 

session of the 53d Congress, when Senators Morgan 
and Lodge introduced bills to reform the consular 
service. They were referred to Senator Morgan's 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, and were favorably 
reported. Senator Lodge made a vigorous fight for 
them in the Senate, but he received little support, 
and was defeated, Senator Gorman leading the oppo- 
sition. 

On the other hand, efforts to repeal the law, or to 
destroy it by new legislation, have uniformly been 
failures, and have rarely gone beyond committee. 
Occasionally, in an appropriation bill or some other 
measure, an amendment will be slipped through, add- 
ing forty or fifty employees to the classified service, 
or providing that the law shall not apply to them; 
but nothing important has ever been done in this 
way. But once has there been a resolute attack 
made on the law by legislation. This was in the 
53d Congress, when Mr. Bynum, of Lidiana, intro- 
duced in the House, and Mr. Vilas, of Wisconsin, 
pushed in the Senate, a bill to reinstate the Demo- 
cratic railway mail clerks, turned out before the 
classification of the railway mail service in the early 
days of Mr. Harrison's Administration. 

The classification of the railway mail service was 
ordered by President Cleveland less than two months 
before the expiration of his first term of office as 
President. It was impossible for the Commission to 
prepare and hold the necessary examinations and es- 
tablish eligible registers prior to May i, 1889. Presi- 
dent Harrison had been inaugurated on March 4th, 



1 88 Civil Service Reform 

and Postmaster-General Wanamaker permitted the 
spoilsmen to take advantage of the necessary delay 
and turn out half of the employees who were Demo- 
crats, and replace them by Republicans. This was 
an outrageous act, deserving the severe condemna- 
tion it received ; but it was perfectly legal. During 
the four years of Mr. Cleveland's first term a clean 
sweep was made of the raihvay mail service ; the em- 
ployees who were almost all Republicans were turned 
out, and Democrats were put in their places. The 
result was utterly to demoralize the efficiency of the 
service. It had begun to recover from this when the 
change of Administration took place in 1889. The 
time was too short to allow of a clean sweep, but * 
the Republicans did all they could in two months, 
and turned out half of the Democrats. The law then 
went into effect, and since that time there have been 
no more removals for partisan purposes in that 
service. It has now recovered from the demoraliza- 
tion into which it was thrown by the two political 
revolutions, and has reached a higher standard of 
efficiency than ever before. What was done by the 
Republicans in this service was repeated, on a less 
scale, by the Democrats four years later in reference 
to the classification of the small free-delivery post- 
offices. This classification was ordered by President 
Harrison two months before his term of office ex- 
pired ; but in many of the offices it was impossible to 
hold examinations and prepare eligible registers un- 
til after the inauguration of President Cleveland, and 
in a number of cases the incoming postmasters, who 



Civil Service Reform 189 

were appointed prior to the time when the law 
went into effect, took advantage of the delay to 
make clean sweeps of their offices. In one of these 
offices, where the men were changed in a body, the 
new appointees hired the men whom they replaced, 
at $35 a month apiece, to teach them their duties ; in 
itself a sufficient comment on the folly of the spoils 
system. 

Mr. Bynum's bill provided for the reinstatement 
of the Democrats who were turned out by the Re- 
publicans just before the classification of the rail- 
way mail service. Of course such a bill was a mere 
partisan measure. There was no more reason for 
reinstating the Democrats thus turned out than for 
reinstating the Republicans who had been previous- 
ly turned out that these same Democrats might get 
in, or for reinstating the Republicans in the free- 
delivery offices who had been turned out just be- 
fore these offices were classified. If the bill had 
been enacted into law it would have been a most 
serious blow to the whole system, for it would have 
put a premium upon legislation of the kind; and 
after every change of parties we should have seen 
the passing of laws to reinstate masses of Republi- 
cans or Democrats, as the case might be. This would 
have meant a return to the old system under a new 
form of procedure. Nevertheless, Mr. Bynum's bill 
received the solid support of his party. Not a Dem- 
ocratic vote was cast against it in the House, none 
even of the Massachusetts Democrats being re- 
corded against it. In the Senate it was pushed by 



190 Civil Service Reform 

Mr. Vilas. By a piece of rather sharp parliamentary 
procedure he nearly got it through by unanimous 
consent. That it failed was owing entirely to the 
vigilance of Senator Lodge. Senator Vilas asked 
for the passage of the bill, on the ground that it 
was one of small importance, upon which his com- 
mittee were agreed. When it was read the words 
"classified civil service" caught Senator Lodge's 
ear, and he insisted upon an explanation. On find- 
ing out what the bill was he at once objected to its 
consideration. Under this objection it could not 
then be considered. If it could have been brought 
to a vote it would undoubtedly have passed; but 
it was late in the session, the calendars were crowded 
with bills, and it was impossible to get it up in 
its regular order. Another effort was made, and 
was again frustrated by Senator Lodge, and the 
bill then died a natural death. 

In the final session of the 53d Congress a little 
incident occurred which deserves to be related in 
full, not for its own importance, but because it 
affords an excellent example of the numerous cases 
which test the real efficiency of the friends of the 
reform in Congress. It emphasizes the need of 
having, to watch over the interests of the law, a 
man who is willing to fight, who knows the time to 
fight, and who knows how to fight. The secretary 
of the Commission was, in the original law of 1883, 
allowed a salary of $1,600 a year. As the Com- 
mission's force and work have grown, the salary 
in successive appropriation bills for the last ten 



Civil Service Reform 191 

years has been provided for at the rate of $2,000 
a year. Many of the clerks under the secretary 
now receive $1,800, so that it would be of course 
an absurdity to reduce him in salary below his 
subordinates. Scores of other officials of the Gov- 
ernment, including, for instance, the President's 
private secretary, the First Assistant Postmaster- 
General, the First Assistant Secretary of State, 
etc., have had their salaries increased in successive 
appropriation bills over the sum originally pro- 
vided, in precisely the same way that the salary of 
the secretary of the Commission was increased. 
The 53d Congress was Democratic, as was the 
President, Mr. Cleveland, and the secretary of the 
Commission was himself a Democrat, who had been 
appointed to the position by Mr. Cleveland during 
his first term as President. The rules of the House 
provide that there shall be no increase of salary 
beyond that provided in existing law in any ap- 
propriation bill. When the appropriation for the 
Civil Service Commission came up in the House, 
Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, made the point 
of order that to give $2,000 to the secretary of the 
Commission was to increase his salary by $400 
over that provided in the original law of 1883, and 
was therefore out of order. He also produced a 
list of twenty or thirty other officers, including the 
President's private secretary, the First Assistant 
Postmaster-General, etc., whose salaries were sim- 
ilarly increased. He withdrew his point of order 
as regards these persons, but adhered to it as re- 



192 Civil Service Reform 

gards the secretary of the Commission. The 
chairman of the Committee of the Whole, Mr. 
O'Neill, of Massachusetts, sustained the point of 
order; and not one person made any objection or 
made any fight, and the bill was put through the 
House with the secretary's salary reduced. 

Now the point of order was probably ill taken 
anyhow. The existing law was and had been for 
ten years that the salary was $2,000. But, in any 
event, had there been a single Congressman alert 
to the situation and willing to make a fight he could 
have stopped the whole movement by at once mak- 
ing a similar point of order against the President's 
private secretary, against the First Assistant Post- 
master-General, the Assistant Secretary of State, 
and all the others involved. The House would of 
course have refused to cut down the salaries of all 
of these officials, and a resolute man, willing to in- 
sist that they should all go or none, could have 
saved the salary of the secretary of the Civil Service 
Commission. There were plenty of men who would 
have done this if it had been pointed out to them; 
but no one did so, and Mr. Breckinridge's point of 
order was sustained, and the salary of the secretary 
reduced by $400. When it got over to the Senate, 
however, the Civil Service reformers had allies 
who needed but little coaching. In the first place, 
the sub-committee of the Committee on Appropria- 
tions, composed of Messrs. Teller, Cockrell, and 
Allison, to which the Civil Service Commission 
section of the Appropriation bill was referred, re- 



Civil Service Reform 193 

stored the salary to $2,000; but Senator Gorman 
succeeded in carrying, by a bare majority, the Ap- 
propriations Committee against it, and it was re- 
ported to the full Senate at $1,600. The minute 
it got into the full Senate, however, Senator Lodge 
had a fair chance at it, and it was known that he 
would receive ample support. All that he had to 
do was to show clearly the absolute folly of the 
provision thus put in by Mr. Breckinridge, and kept 
in by Mr. Gorman, and to make it evident that he 
intended to fight it resolutely. The opposition col- 
lapsed at once; the salary was put back at $2,000, 
and the bill became a law in that form. 

Whether bad legislation shall be choked and good 
legislation forwarded depends largely upon the com- 
position of the committees on Civil Service reform 
of the Senate and the Lower House. The make-up 
of these committees is consequently of great impor- 
tance. They are charged with the duty of investi- 
gating against the Commission, and it is of course 
very important that if ever the Commission becomes 
corrupt or inefficient its shortcomings should be un- 
sparingly exposed in Congress. On the other hand, 
it is equally important that the falsity of untruthful 
charges advanced against it should be made public. 
In the 51st, 52d, and 53d Congresses a good deal of 
work was done by the Civil Service Committee of 
the House, and none at all by the corresponding 
committee of the Senate. The three chairmen of 
the House committee were Mr. Lehlbach, Mr. An- 
drew, and Mr. De Forest. All three were able and 

9 Vol. I. 



194 Civil Service Reform 

conscientious men and stanch supporters of the law. 
The chairman in the 52d Congress, Mr. John F. 
Andrew, was throughout his whole term of service 
one of the ablest, most fearless, and most effective 
champions of the cause of the reform in the House. 
Among the other members of the committee, in dif- 
ferent Congresses, who stood up valiantly for the 
reform, were Mr. Hopkins, of Illinois, Mr. Butter- 
worth, of Ohio, Mr. Boatner, of Louisiana, and Mr. 
Dargan and Mr. Brawley, of South Carolina. Oc- 
casionally there have been on the committee members 
who were hostile to the reform, such as Mr. Alder- 
son, of West Virginia ; but these have not been men 
carrying weight in the House. The men of intelli- 
gence and ability who once familiarize themselves 
with the workings of the system, as they are bound 
to do if they are on the committee, are sure to be- 
come its supporters. In both the 51st and the 52d 
Congresses charges were made against the Commis- 
sion, and investigations were held into its actions 
and into the workings of the law by the House com- 
mittee. In each case, in its report the committee 
not only heartily applauded the conduct of the Com- 
mission, but no less heartily approved the workings 
of the law, and submitted bills to increase the power 
of the Commission and to render the law still more 
wide-reaching and drastic. These bills, unfortu- 
nately, were never acted on in the House. 

The main fight in each session comes on the Ap- 
propriation bill. There is not the slightest danger 
that the law will be repealed, and there is not much 



Civil Service Reform 195 

danger that any President will suffer it to be so 
laxly administered as to deprive it of all value; 
though there is always need to keep a vigilant look- 
out for fear of such lax administration. The dan- 
ger-point is in the appropriations. The first Civil 
Service Commission, established in the days of Pres- 
ident Grant, was starved out by Congress refusing 
to appropriate for it. A hostile Congress could re- 
peat the same course now ; and, as a matter of fact, 
in every Congress resolute efforts are made by the 
champions of foul government and dishonest poli- 
tics to cut off the Commission's supplies. The bolder 
men, who come from districts where little is known 
of the law, and where there is no adequate expres- 
sion of intelligent and honest opinion on the subject, 
attack it openly. They are always joined by a num- 
ber who make the attack covertly under some point 
of order, or because of a nominal desire for econ- 
omy. These are quite as dangerous as the others, 
and deserve exposure. Every man interested in de- 
cent government should keep an eye on his Con- 
gressman and see how he votes on the question of 
appropriations for the Commission. 

The opposition to the reform is generally well led 
by skilled parliamentarians, and they fight with the 
vindictiveness natural to men who see a chance of 
striking at the institution which has baffled their 
ferocious greed. As a rule, the rank and file are 
composed of politicians who could not rise in public 
life because of their attitude on any public question, 
and who derive most of their power from the skill 



196 Civil Service Reform 

with which they manipulate the patronage of their 
districts. These men have a gift at office-monger- 
ing, just as other men have a peculiar knack in pick- 
ing pockets; and they are joined by all the honest 
dull men, who vote wrong out of pure ignorance, and 
by a very few sincere and intelligent, but wholly mis- 
guided people. Many of the spoils leaders are both 
efficient and fearless, and able to strike hard blows. 
In consequence, the leaders on the side of decency 
must themselves be men of ability and force, or the 
cause will suffer. For our good fortune, we have 
never yet lacked such leaders. 

The Appropriation committees, both in the House 
and Senate, almost invariably show a friendly dis- 
position toward the law. They are composed of 
men of prominence, who have a sense of the respon- 
sibilities of their positions and an earnest desire to 
do well for the country and to make an honorable 
record for their party in matters of legislation. 
They are usually above resorting to the arts of low 
cunning or of sheer demagogy to which the foes of 
the reform system are inevitably driven, and in con- 
sequence they can be relied upon to give, if not what 
is needed, at least enough to prevent any retrogres- 
sion. It is in the open House and in Committee 
of the Whole that the fight is waged. The most 
dangerous fight occurs in Committee of the Whole, 
for there the members do not vote by aye and no, 
and in consequence a mean politician who wishes ill 
to the law, but is afraid of his constituents, votes 
against it in committee, but does not dare to do so 



Civil Service Reform 197 

when the ayes and noes are called in the House. 
One result of this has been that more than once the 
whole appropriation has been stricken out in Com- 
mittee of the Whole, and then voted back again by- 
substantial majorities by the same men sitting in 
open House. 

In the debate on the appropriation the whole ques- 
tion of the workings of the law is usually discussed, 
and those members who are opposed to it attack not 
only the law itself, but the Commission which ad- 
ministers it. The occasion is, therefore, invariably 
seized as an opportunity for a pitched battle between 
the friends and foes of the system, the former try- 
ing to secure such an increase of appropriation as 
will permit the Commission to extend its work, and 
the latter striving to abolish the law outright by re- 
fusing all appropriations. In the 51st and 52d Con- 
gresses, Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts, led the fight 
for the reform in the Lower House. He was sup- 
ported by such party leaders as Messrs. Reed, of 
Maine, and McKinley, of Ohio, among the Republi- 
cans, and Messrs. Wilson, of West Virginia, and 
Sayers, of Texas, among the Democrats. Among 
the other champions of the law on the floor of the 
House were Messrs. Hopkins and Butterworth, Mr. 
Greenhalge, of Massachusetts, Mr. Henderson, of 
Iowa, Messrs. Payne, Tracey, and Coombs, of New 
York. I wish I had the space to chronicle the names 
of all, and to give a complete list of those who voted 
for the law. Among the chief opponents of it were 
Messrs. Spinola, of New York, Enloe, of Tennessee, 



198 Civil Service Reform 

Stockdale, of Mississippi, Grosvenor, of Ohio, and 
Bowers, of California. The task of the defenders 
of the law was, in one way easy, for they had no 
arguments to meet, the speeches of their adversaries 
being invariably divisible into mere declamation and 
direct misstatement of facts. In the Senate, Sena- 
tors Hoar, of Massachusetts, Allison, of Iowa, Haw- 
ley, of Connecticut, Wolcott, of Colorado, Perkins, 
of California, Cockrell, of Missouri, and Butler, of 
South Carolina, always supported the Commission 
against unjust attack. Senator Gorman was natu- 
rally the chief leader of the assaults upon the Com- 
mission. Senators Harris, Plumb, Stewart, and 
Ingalls were among his allies. 

In each session the net result of the fight was an 
increase in the appropriation for the Commission. 
The most important increase was that obtained in 
the first session of the 53d Congress. On this occa- 
sion Mr. Lodge was no longer in the House, having 
been elected to the Senate. The work of the Com- 
mission had grown so that it was impossible to per- 
form it without a great increase of force; and it 
would have been impossible to have put into effect 
the extensions of the classified service had this in- 
crease not been allowed. In the House the Com- 
mittee on Appropriations, of which Mr. Sayers was 
chairman, allowed the increase, but it was stricken 
out in the House itself after an acrimonious debate, 
in which the cause of the law was sustained by 
Messrs. Henderson and Hopkins, Mr. McCall, of 
Massachusetts, Mr. Coombs, Mr. Grain, of Texas, 



Civil Service Reform 199 

Mr. Storer, of Ohio, and many others, while the 
spoils-mongers were led by Messrs. Stockdale and 
Williams, of Mississippi, Pendelton, of West 
Virginia, Fithian, of Illinois, and others less im- 
portant. 

When the bill went over to the Senate, however, 
Mr. Lodge, well supported by Messrs. Allison, Cock- 
rell, Wolcott, and Teller, had the provision for the 
increase of appropriation for the Commission re- 
stored and increased, thereby adding by one-half to 
the efficiency of the Commission's work. Had it 
not been for this the Commission would have been 
quite unable to have undertaken the extensions re- 
cently ordered by President Cleveland. 

It is noteworthy that the men who have done 
most effective work for the law in Washington In 
the departments, and more especially in the House 
and Senate, are men of spotless character, who show 
by their whole course in public life that they are not 
only able and resolute, but also devoted to a high 
ideal. Much of what they have done has received 
little comment in public, because much of the work 
in committee, and some of the work in the House, 
such as making or combating points of order, and 
pointing out the danger or merit of certain bills, is 
not of a kind readily understood or appreciated by 
an outsider ; yet no men have deserved better of the 
country, for there is in American public life no one 
other cause so fruitful of harm to the body politic 
as the spoils system, and the legislators and admin- 
istrative officers who have done the best work to- 



200 Civil Service Reform 

ward its destruction merit a peculiar meed of praise 
from all well-wishers of the Republic. 

I have spoken above of the good that would come 
from a thorough and intelligent knowledge as to 
who were the friends and who were the foes of 
the law in Washington. Departmental officers, the 
heads of bureaus, and, above all, the Commissioners 
themselves, should be carefully watched by all friends 
of the reform. They should be supported when they 
do well, and condemned when they do ill; and at- 
tention should be called not only to what they do, 
but to what they fail to do. To an even greater ex- 
tent, of course, this applies to the President. As 
regards the Senators and Congressmen also there is 
urgent need of careful supervision by the friends 
of the law. We need criticism by those who are 
unable to do their part in action ; but the criticism, 
to be useful must be both honest and intelligent, 
and the critics must remember that the system has 
its stanch friends and bitter foes among both party 
men and men of no party — among Republicans, 
Democrats, and Independents. Each Congressman 
should be made to feel that it is his duty to support 
the law, and that he will be held to account if he 
fails to support it. Especially is it necessary to con- 
centrate effort in working for each step of reform. 
In legislative matters, for instance, there is need of 
increase of appropriations for the Commission, and 
there is a chance of putting through the bill to re- 
form the Consular service. This has received sub- 
stantial backing in the Senate, and has the support 



Civil Service Reform 201 

of the majority of the Foreign Affairs Committee. 
Instead of wasting efforts by a diffuse support of 
eight or ten bills, it would be well to bend every 
energy to securing the passage of the Consular bill ; 
and to do this it is necessary to arouse not only the 
Civil Service Reform Associations, but the Boards 
of Trade throughout the country, and to make the 
Congressmen and Senators feel individually the pres- 
sure from those of their constituents who are re- 
solved no longer to tolerate the peculiarly gross 
manifestation of the spoils system which now ob- 
tains in the consular service, with its attendant dis- 
credit to the national honor abroad. 

People sometimes grow a little downhearted 
about the reform. When they feel in this mood 
it would be well for them to reflect on what has 
actually been gained in the past six years. By the 
inclusion of the railway mail service, the smaller 
free-delivery offices, the Indian School service, the 
Internal Revenue service, and other less important 
branches, the extent of the public service which is 
under the protection of the law has been more than 
doubled, and there are now nearly fifty thousand 
employees of the Federal Government who have 
been withdrawn from the degrading influences that 
rule under the spoils system. This of itself is a 
great success and a great advance, though, of course, 
it ought only to spur us on to renewed effort. In 
the fall of 1894 the people of the State of New 
York, by a popular vote, put into their constitution 
a provision providing for a merit system in the af- 



202 Civil Service Reform 

fairs of the State and its municipalities ; and the fol- 
lowing spring the great city of Chicago voted, by 
an overwhelming majority, in favor of applying in 
its municipal affairs the advanced and radical Civil 
Service Reform Law, which had already passed the 
Illinois Legislature. Undoubtedly, after every suc- 
cess there comes a moment of reaction. The friends 
of the reform grow temporarily lukewarm, or, be- 
cause it fails to secure everything they hoped, they 
neglect to lay proper stress upon all that it does se- 
cure. Yet, in spite of all rebuffs, in spite of all dis- 
appointments and opposition, the growth of the 
principle of Civil Service reform has been contin- 
ually more rapid, and every year has taken us 
measurably nearer that ideal of pure and decent 
government which is dear to the heart of every 
honest American citizen. 



I 



II 

ADMINISTERING THE NEW YORK 
POLICE FORCE* 

IN New York, in the fall of 1894, Tammany Hall 
was overthrown by a coalition composed partly 
of the regular Republicans, partly of anti-Tam- 
many Democrats, and partly of Independents. Un- 
der the latter head must be included a great many 
men who in national politics habitually act with 
one or the other of the two great parties, but who 
feel that in municipal politics good citizens should 
act independently. The tidal wave, which was run- 
ning high against the Democratic party, was un- 
doubtedly very influential in bringing about the anti- 
Tammany victory ; but the chief factor in producing 
the result was the widespread anger and disgust 
felt by decent citizens at the corruption which, under 
the sway of Tammany, had honeycombed every de- 
partment of the city government, but especially the 
police force. A few well-meaning people have at 
times tried to show that this corruption was not so 
very great. In reality it would be difficult to over- 
estimate the utter rottenness of many branches of the 
city administration. There were a few honorable 
and high-minded Tammany officials, and there were 

* Atlantic Monthly, September, 1897. 

(203) 



204 The New York Police Force 

a few bureaus which were administered with more 
or less efficiency, although dishonestly. But the 
corruption had become so widespread as seriously to 
impair the work of administration, and to bring us 
back within measurable distance of the days of 
Tweed. 

The chief centre of corruption was the Police De- 
partment. No man not intimately acquainted with 
both the lower and humbler sides of New York life 
— for there is a wide distinction between the two — 
can realize how far this corruption extended. Ex- 
cept in rare instances, where prominent politicians 
made demands which could not be refused, both pro- 
motions and appointments toward the close of Tam- 
many rule were made almost solely for money, and 
the prices were discussed with cynical frankness. 
There was a well-recognized tariff of charges, rang- 
ing from two or three hundred dollars for appoint- 
ment as a patrolman, to twelve or fifteen thousand 
dollars for promotion to the position of captain. 
The money was reimbursed to those who paid it by 
an elaborate system of blackmail. This was chiefly 
carried on at the expense of gamblers, liquor-sellers, 
and keepers of disorderly houses ; but every form of 
vice and crime contributed more or less, and a great 
many respectable people who were ignorant or timid 
were blackmailed under pretence of forbidding or 
allowing them to violate obscure ordinances and the 
like. From top to bottom the New York police force 
was utterly demoralized by the gangrene of such a 
system, where venality and blackmail went hand in 



The New York Police Force 205 

hand with the basest forms of low ward politics, and 
where the policeman, the ward politician, the liquor- 
seller, and the criminal alternately preyed on one 
another and helped one another to prey on the gen- 
eral public. 

In May, 1895, I was made president of the newly 
appointed police board, whose duty it was to cut out 
the chief source of civic corruption in New York by 
cleansing the police department. The police board 
consisted of four members. All four of the new 
men were appointed by Mayor Strong, the reform 
Mayor, who had taken office in January. 

With me was associated, as treasurer of the 
Board, Mr. Avery D. Andrews. He was a Demo- 
crat and I a Republican, and there were questions of 
national politics on which we disagreed widely ; but 
such questions could not enter into the administra- 
tion of the New York police, if that administration 
was to be both honest and efficient ; and as a matter 
of fact, during my two years' service, Mr. Andrews 
and I worked in absolute harmony on every impor- 
tant question of policy which arose. The prevention 
of blackmail and corruption, the repression of crime 
and violence, safeguarding of life and property, se- 
curing honest elections, and rewarding efficient and 
punishing inefficient police service, are not, and can 
not properly be made, questions of party difference. 
In other words, such a body as the police force of 
New York can be wisely and properly administered 
only upon a non-partisan basis, and both Mr. An- 
drews and myself were quite incapable of managing 



2o6 The New York Police Force 

it on any other. There were many men who helped 
us in our work; and among them all, the man who 
helped us most, by advice and counsel, by stalwart, 
loyal friendship, and by ardent championship of all 
that was good against all that was evil, was Jacob 
A. Riis, the author of "How the Other Half Lives." 
Certain of the difficulties we had to face were 
merely those which confronted the entire reform ad- 
ministration in its management of the municipality. 
Many worthy people expected that this reform ad- 
ministration would work an absolute revolution, not 
merely in the government, but in the minds of the 
citizens as a whole; and felt vaguely that they had 
been cheated because there was not an immediate 
cleansing of every bad influence in civic or social 
life. Moreover, the different bodies forming the 
victorious coalition felt the pressure of conflicting 
interests and hopes. The mass of effective strength 
was given by the Republican organization, and not 
only all the enrolled party workers, but a great num- 
ber of well-meaning Republicans who had no per- 
sonal interest at stake, expected the administration 
to be used to further the fortunes of their own party. 
Another great body of the administration's support- 
ers took a diametrically opposite view, and believed 
that the administration shoukl be administered with- 
out the least reference whatever to party. In the- 
ory they were quite right, and I cordially sympa- 
thized with them ; but as a matter of fact the victory 
could not have been won by the votes of this class 
of people alone, and it was out of the question to put 



The New York Police Force 207 

these theories into complete effect. Like all other 
men who actually try to do things instead of confin- 
ing themselves to saying how they should be done, 
the members of the new city government were 
obliged to face the facts and to do the best they 
could in the effort to get some kind of good result 
out of the conflicting forces. They had to disre- 
gard party so far as was possible ; and yet they could 
not afford to disregard all party connections so ut- 
terly as to bring the whole administration to grief. 

In addition to these two large groups of sup- 
porters of the administration, there were other 
groups, also possessing influence, who expected to 
receive recognition distinctly as Democrats, but as 
anti-Tammany Democrats; and such members of 
any victorious coalition are always sure to over- 
estimate their own services, and to feel ill-treated. 

It is of course an easy thing to show on paper 
that the municipal administration should have been 
administered without the slightest reference to na- 
tional party lines, and if the bulk of the people saw 
things with entire clearness the truth would seem 
so obvious as to need no demonstration. But as 
a matter of fact the bulk of the people who voted 
the new administration into power neither saw this 
nor realized it, and in politics, as in life generally, 
conditions must be faced as they are, and not as 
they ought to be. The regular Democratic organi- 
zation, not only in the city but in the State, was 
completely under the dominion of Tammany Hall 
and its allies, and they fought us at every step wit' 



2o8 The New York Police Force 

wholly unscrupulous hatred. In the State and the 
city alike the Democratic campaign was waged 
against the reform administration in New York. 
The Tammany officials who were still left in power 
in the city, headed by the Controller, Mr. Fitch, 
did everything in their power to prevent the effi- 
cient administration of the government. The Demo- 
cratic members of the Legislature acted as their 
faithful allies in all such efforts. Whatever was 
accomplished by the reform administration — and 
a very great deal was accomplished — was due to 
the action of the Republican majority in the con- 
stitutional convention, and especially to the Repub- 
lican Governor, Mr. Morton, and the Republican 
majority in the Legislature, who enacted laws giv- 
ing to the newly chosen Mayor, Mr. Strong, the 
great powers necessary for properly administering 
his office. Without these laws the Mayor would 
have been very nearly powerless. He certainly 
could not have done a tenth part of what actually 
was done. 

Now, of course, the Republican politicians who 
gave Mayor Strong all these powers, in the teeth 
of violent Democratic opposition to every law for 
the betterment of civic conditions in New York, 
ought not, under ideal conditions, to have expected 
the slightest reward. They should have been con- 
tented with showing the public that their only pur- 
pose was to serve the public, and that the Repub- 
lican party wished no better reward than the con- 
sciousness of having done its duty by the State 



The New York Police Force 209 

and the city. But as a whole they had not reached 
such a standard. There were some who had reached 
it; there were others who, though perfectly honest, 
and wishing to see good government prosper, yet 
felt that somehow it ought to be combined with 
party advantage of a tangible sort ; and finally, there 
were yet others who were not honest at all and 
cared nothing for the victory unless it resulted in 
some way to their own personal advantage. In 
short, the problem presented was of the kind which 
usually is presented when dealing with men as a 
mass. The Mayor and his administration had to 
keep in touch with the Republican party or they 
could have accomplished nothing; and on the other 
hand there was much that the Republican machine 
asked which they could not do, because a surrender 
on certain vital points meant the abandonment of 
the effort to obtain good administration. 

The undesirability of breaking with the Repub- 
lican organization was shown by what happened in 
the administration of the police department. This 
being the great centre of power was the especial 
object of the Republican machine leaders. Toward 
the close of Tammany rule, of the four Police Com- 
missioners, two had been machine Republicans, 
whose actions were in no wise to be distinguished 
from those of their Tammany colleagues; and im- 
mediately after the new board was appointed to 
ofhce the machine got through the Legislature the 
so-called bi-partisan or Lexow law, under which 
the department is at present administered; and a 



2IO The New York Police Force 

more foolish or vicious law was never enacted by 
any legislative body. It modeled the government 
of the police force somewhat on the lines of the 
Polish parliament, and it was avowedly designed to 
make it difficult to get effective action. It provided 
for a four-headed board, so that it was difficult to 
get a majority anyhow; but, lest we should get 
such a majority, it gave each member power to veto 
the actions of his colleagues in certain very im- 
portant matters; and, lest we should do too much 
when we were unanimous, it provided that the 
chief, our nominal subordinate, should have entirely 
independent action in the most important matters, 
and should be practically irremovable, except for 
proved corruption; so that he was responsible to 
nobody. The Mayor was similarly hindered from 
removing any Police Commissioner, so that when 
one of our colleagues began obstructing the work 
of the board, and thwarting its effort to reform the 
force, the Mayor in vain strove to turn him out. 
In short, there was a complete divorce of power 
and responsibility, and it was exceedingly difficult 
either to do anything, or to place anywhere the 
responsibility for not doing it. 

If by any reasonable concessions, if, indeed, 
by the performance of any act not incompatible 
with our oaths of office, we could have stood on 
good terms with the machine, we would certainly 
have made the effort, even at the cost of sacri- 
ficing many of our ideals; and in almost any other 
department we could probably have avoided a 



The New York Police Force 211 

break, but in the police force such a compromise 
was not possible. What was demanded of us usu- 
ally took some such form as the refusal to enforce 
certain laws, or the protection of certain law-break- 
ers, or the promotion of the least fit men to posi- 
tions of high power and grave responsibility; and 
on such points it was not possible to yield. We 
were obliged to treat all questions that arose purely 
on their merits, without reference to the desires of 
the politicians. We went into this course with our 
eyes open, for we knew the trouble it would cause 
us personally, and, what was far more important, 
the way in which our efforts for reform would con- 
sequently be hampered. However, there was no al- 
ternative, and we had to abide by the result. We 
had counted the cost before we adopted our course, 
and we followed it resolutely to the end. We 
could not accomplish all that we should have liked 
to accomplish, for we were shackled by preposterous 
legislation, and by the opposition and intrigues of 
the basest machine politicians, which cost us the 
support, sometimes of one, and sometimes of both, 
of our colleagues. Nevertheless, the net result of 
our two years of work was that we did more to 
increase the efficiency and honesty of the police 
department than had ever previously been done in 
its history. 

But a decent people will have to show by em- 
phatic action that they are in the majority if they 
wish this result to be permanent; for under such a 
law as the "bi-partisan" law it is almost impossible 



2 12 The New York Police Force 

to keep the department honest and efficient for any 
length of time; and the machine politicians, by their 
opposition outside the board, and by the aid of any 
tool or ally whom they can get on the board, can 
always hamper and cripple the honest members of 
the board, no matter how resolute and able the lat- 
ter may be, if they do not have an aroused and 
determined public opinion behind them. 

Besides suffering, in aggravated form, from the 
difficulties which beset the course of the entire ad- 
ministration, the police board had to encounter — and 
honest and efficient police boards must always en- 
counter — certain special and peculiar difficulties. It 
is not a pleasant thing to deal with criminals and 
purveyors of vice. It is very rough work, and it 
can not always be done in a nice manner. The man 
with the night stick, the man in the blue coat 
with the helmet, can keep order and repress open 
violence on the streets ; but most kinds of crime and 
vice are ordinarily carried on furtively and by 
stealth, perhaps at night, perhaps behind closed 
doors. It is possible to reach them only by the 
employment of the man in plain clothes, the de- 
tective. Now the function of the detective is pri- 
marily that of the spy, and it is always easy to 
arouse feeling against a spy. It is absolutely nec- 
essary to employ him. Ninety per cent of the most 
dangerous criminals and purveyors of vice can not 
be reached in any other way. But the average citi- 
zen who does not think deeply fails to realize the 
necessity for any such employment. In a vague way 



The New York Police Force 213 

he desires vice and crime put down ; but, also in a 
vague way, he objects to the only possible means by 
which they can be put down. It is easy to mislead 
him into denouncing what is necessarily done in or- 
der to carry out the very policy for which he is 
clamoring. The Tammany officials of New York, 
headed by the Controller, made a systematic effort 
to excite public hostility against the police for their 
warfare on vice. The law-breaking liquor-seller, 
the keeper of disorderly houses, and the gambler, had 
been influential allies of Tammany, and head con- 
tributors to its campaign chest. Naturally Tam- 
many fought for them; and the effective way in 
which to carry on such a fight was to portray with 
gross exaggeration and misstatement the methods 
necessarily employed by every police force which 
honestly endeavors to do its work. The methods 
are unpleasant, just as the methods employed in any 
surgical operation are unpleasant ; and the Tammany 
champions were able to arouse more or less feeling 
against the police board for precisely the same reason 
that a century ago it was easy to arouse what were 
called "doctors' mobs" against surgeons who cut 
up dead bodies. In neither case is the operation at- 
tractive, and it is one which readily lends itself to 
denunciation; but in both cases it is necessary if 
there is a real intention to get at the disease. Tam- 
many of course found its best allies in the sensa- 
tional newspapers. Of all the forces that tend for 
evil in a great city like New York, probably none 
are so potent as the sensational papers. Until one 



214 The New York Police Force 

has had experience with them it is difficult to realize 
the reckless indifference to truth or decency dis- 
played by papers such as the two that have the 
largest circulation in New York City. Scandal 
forms the breath of the nostrils of such papers, and 
they are quite as ready to create as to describe it. 
To sustain law and order is humdrum, and does not 
readily lend itself to flaunting woodcuts ; but if the 
editor will stoop, and make his subordinates stoop, 
to raking the gutters of human depravity, to uphold- 
ing the wrong-doer, and furiously assailing what is 
upright and honest, he can make money, just as 
other types of pander make it. The man who is to 
do honorable work in any form of civic politics must 
make up his mind (and if he is a man of properly 
robust character he will make it up without difficulty) 
to treat the assaults of papers like these with abso- 
lute indifference, and to go his way unheeding. In- 
deed he will have to make up his mind to be criti- 
cised, sometimes justly, and more often unjustly, 
even by decent people ; and he must not be so thin- 
skinned as to mind such criticism overmuch. 

In administering the police force we found, as 
might be expected, that there was no need of genius, 
nor indeed of any very unusual qualities. What was 
needed was exercise of the plain, ordinary virtues, 
of a rather commonplace type, which all good citi- 
zens should be expected to possess. Common-sense, 
common honesty, courage, energy, resolution, readi- 
ness to learn and a desire to be as pleasant with 
everybody as was compatible with a strict perform- 



The New York Police Force 215 

mg of duty — these were the quahties most called 
for. We soon found that, in spite of the widespread 
corruption which had obtained in the New York 
Police Department, the bulk of the men were heartily 
desirous of being honest. There were some who 
were incurably dishonest, just as there were some 
who had remained decent in spite of terrific tempta- 
tion and pressure; but the great mass came in be- 
tween. Although not possessing the stamina to war 
against corruption when the odds seemed wellnigh 
hopeless, they were nevertheless heartily glad to be 
decent and to welcome the change to a system under 
which they were rewarded for doing well, and pun- 
ished for doing ill. 

Our methods for restoring order and discipline 
were simple, and indeed so were our methods for se- 
curing efficiency. We made frequent personal in- 
spections, especially at night, turning up anywhere, 
at any time. We thus speedily got an idea of whom 
among our upper subordinates we could trust and 
whom we could not. We then proceeded to punish 
those guilty of shortcomings, and to reward those 
who did well, refusing to pay any heed whatever 
in either case to anything except the man's own 
character and record. A very few of these promo- 
tions and dismissals sufficed to show our subordi- 
nates that at last they were dealing with superiors 
who meant what they said, and that the days of po- 
Htical "pull" were over while we had the power. 
The effect was immediate. The decent men took 
heart, and those who were not decent feared longer 



2i6 The New York Police Force 

to offend. The morale of the entire force improved 

steadily. 

A similar course was followed in reference to the 
relations between the police and citizens generally. 
There had formerly been much complaint of the 
brutal treatment by police of innocent citizens. This 
was stopped peremptorily by the simple expedient of 
dismissing from the force the first two or three men 
found guilty of brutality. On the other hand, we 
made the force understand that in the event of any 
emergency requiring them to use their weapons 
against either a mob or an individual criminal, the 
police board backed them up without reservation. 
Our sympathy was for the friends, and not the foes, 
of order. If a mob threatened violence we were 
glad to have the mob hurt. If a criminal showed 
fight we expected the officer to use any weapon that 
was necessary to overcome him on the instant ; and 
even, if it became necessary, to take life. All that 
the board required was to be convinced that the ne- 
cessity really existed. We did not possess a particle 
of that maudlin sympathy for the criminal, disor- 
derly, and lawless classes which is such a particu- 
larly unhealthy sign of social development; and 
we were bound that the improvement in the fighting 
efficiency of the police should go hand in hand with 
the improvement in their moral tone. 

To break up the system of blackmail and corrup- 
tion was less easy. It was not at all difficult to pro- 
tect decent people in their rights, and this was ac- 
complished at once. But the criminal who is black- 



The New York Police Force 217 

mailed has a direct interest in paying the black- 
mailer, and it is not easy to get information about 
it. Nevertheless, we put a complete stop to most of 
the blackmail by the simple process of rigorously 
enforcing the laws, not only against crime, but 
against vice. 

It was the enforcement of the liquor law which 
caused most excitement. In New York we suffer 
from the altogether too common tendency to make 
any law which a certain section of the community 
wants, and then to allow that law to be more or less 
of a dead letter if any other section of the commu- 
nity objects to it. The multiplication of laws by the 
Legislature, and their partial enforcement by the 
executive authorities, go hand in hand, and offer 
one of the many serious problems with which we are 
confronted in striving to better civic conditions. 
New York State felt that liquor should not be sold 
on Sunday. The larger part of New York City 
wished to drink liquor on Sunday, Any man who 
studies the social condition of the poor knows that 
liquor works more ruin than any other one cause. 
He knows also, however, that it is simply imprac- 
ticable to extirpate the habit entirely, and that to at- 
tempt too much often merely results in accomplish- 
ing too little; and he knows, moreover, that for a 
man alone to drink whiskey in a bar-room is one 
thing, and for men with their families to drink light 
wines or beer in respectable restaurants is quite a 
different thing. The average citizen, who doesn't 

think at all, and the average politician of the baser 
10 Vol. I. 



2i8 The New York Police Force 

sort, who only thinks about his own personal advan- 
tage, find it easiest to disregard these facts, and to 
pass a liquor law which will please the temperance 
people, and then trust to the police department to 
enforce it with such laxity as to please the intem- 
perate. 

The results of this pleasing system were evident 
in New York when our board came into power. The 
Sunday liquor law was by no means a dead letter in 
New York City. On the contrary, no less than eight 
thousand arrests for its violation had been made 
under the Tammany regime the year before we 
came in. It was very much alive; but it was only 
executed against those who either had no political 
pull or who refused to pay money. The liquor busi- 
ness does not stand on the same footing with other 
occupations. It always tends to produce criminality 
in the population at large, and law-breaking among 
the saloon-keepers themselves. It is absolutely nec- 
essary to supervise it rigidly, and impose restrictions 
upon the traffic. In large cities the traffic can not 
be stopped; but the evils can at least be minimized. 

In New York the saloon-keepers have always stood 
high among professional politicians. Nearly two- 
thirds of the political leaders of Tammany Hall have, 
at one time or another, been in the liquor business. 
The saloon is the natural club and meeting place for 
the ward heelers and leaders, and the bar-room poli- 
tician is one of the most common and best recognized 
factors in local political government. The saloon- 
keepers are always hand in glove with the profes- 



The New York Police Force 219 

sional politicians, and occupy toward them a posi- 
tion such as is not held by any other class of men. 
The influence they, wield in local politics has always 
been vei*y great, and until our board took office no 
man ever dared seriously to threaten them for their 
flagrant violations of the law. The powerful and 
influential saloon-keeper was glad to see his neigh- 
bors closed, for it gave him business. On the other 
hand, a corrupt police captain, or the corrupt politi- 
cian who controlled him, could always extort money 
from a saloon-keeper by threatening to close him and 
let his neighbor remain open. Gradually the greed 
of corrupt police officials and of corrupt politicians 
grew by what it fed on, until they began to black- 
mail all but the very most influential liquor-sellers; 
and as liquor-sellers were very numerous, and the 
profits of the liquor business great, the amount col- 
lected was enormous. 

The reputable saloon-keepers themselves found 
this condition of blackmail and political favoritism 
almost intolerable. The law which we found on the 
statute books had been put on by a Tammany Legis- 
lature three years before we took office. A couple 
of months after we took office, Mr. J. P. Smith, the 
editor of the liquor-dealers' organ, the Wine and 
Spirit Gazette, gave out the following interview, 
which is of such an extraordinary character that I 
insert it almost in full : 

"Governor Flower, as well as the Legislature of 

1892, was elected upon distinct pledges that relief 

would be given by the Democratic party to the liquor- 



220 The New York Police Force 

■dealers, especially of the cities of the State. In ac- 
cordance with this promise a Sunday-opening clause 
was inserted in the excise bill of 1892. Governor 
Flower then said that he could not approve the Sun- 
day-opening clause ; whereupon the Liquor Dealers' 
Association, which had charge of the bill, struck the 
Sunday-opening clause out. After Governor Hill had 
been elected for the second term I had several in- 
terviews with him on that very subject. He told me, 
'You know I am the friend of the liquor-dealers and 
will go to almost any length to help them and give 
them relief ; but do not ask me to recommend to the 
Legislature the passage of the law opening the sa- 
loons on Sunday. I can not do it, for it will ruin 
the Democratic party in the State.' He gave the 
same interview to various members of the State 
Liquor Dealers' Association, who waited upon him 
for the purpose of getting relief from the blackmail 
of the police, stating that the lack of having the 
Sunday question properly regulated was at the bot- 
tom of the trouble. Blackmail had been brought to 
such a state of perfection, and had become so op- 
pressive to the liquor-dealers themselves, that they 
communicated first with Governor Hill and then 
with Mr. Croker. The Wine and Spirit Gazette had 
taken up the subject because of gross discrimination 
made by the police in the enforcement of the Sunday- 
closing law. The paper again and again called upon 
the police commissioners to either uniformly enforce 
the law or uniformly disregard it. A committee of 
the Central Association of Liquor* Dealers of this 



The New York Police Force 221 

city then took up the matter and called upon Police 
Commissioner Martin.* An agreement zvas then 
made hetzveen the leaders of Tammany Hall and the 
liquor-dealers, according to which the monthly black- 
mail paid to the police shoidd he discontinued in 
return for political support.^ In other words, the 
retail dealers should bind themselves to solidly sup- 
port the Tammany ticket in consideration of the dis- 
continuance of the monthly blackmail by the police. 
This agreement was carried out. Now what was the 
consequence ? If the liquor-dealer, after the monthly 
blackmail ceased, showed any signs of independence, 
the Tammany Hall district leader would give the tip 
to the police captain, and that man would be pulled 
and arrested on the following Sunday." 

Continuing, Mr. Smith inveighed against the law, 
but said: 

"The (present) police commissioners are honestly 
endeavoring to have the law impartially carried out. 
They are no respecters of persons. And our in- 
formation from all classes of liquor-dealers is that 
the rich and the poor, the influential and the unin- 
fluential, are required equally to obey the law." 

There is really some difficulty in commenting upon 
the statements of this interview, statements which 
were never denied. 

The law was not in the least a dead-letter ; it was 
enforced, but it was corruptly and partially enforced. 
It was a prominent factor in the, Tammany scheme 

* My predecessor in the Presidency of the Police Board. 
t The italics are my own. 



222 The New York Police Force 

of government. It afforded a most effective means 
for blackmailing a large portion of the liquor-sellers 
and for the wholesale corruption of the police de- 
partment. The high Tammany officials and police 
captains and patrolmen blackmailed and bullied the 
small liquor-sellers without a pull, and turned them 
into abject slaves of Tammany Hall. On the other 
hand, the wealthy and politically influential liquor- 
sellers controlled the police, and made or marred 
captains, sergeants, and patrolmen at their pleasure. 
In some of the precincts most of the saloons were 
closed; in others almost all were open. The rich 
and powerful liquor-seller violated the law at will, 
unless he had fallen under the ban of the police or 
the ward boss, when he was not allowed to violate 
it at all. 

Under these circumstances the new police board 
had one of two courses to follow. We could either 
instruct the police to allow all the saloon-keepers to 
become law-breakers, or else we could instruct them 
to allow none to be law-breakers. We followed the 
latter course, because we had some regard for our 
oaths of office. For two or three months we had a 
regular fight, and on Sundays had to employ half 
the force to enforce the liquor law; for the Tam- 
many legislators had drawn the law so as to make 
it easy of enforcement for purposes of blackmail, 
but not easy of enforcement generally, certain pro- 
visions being deliberately inserted with the intention 
to make it difficult of universal execution. How- 
ever, when once the liquor-sellers and their allies 



The New York Police Force 223 

understood that we had not the sHghtest intention 
of being bullied, threatened, or cajoled out of follow- 
ing the course which we had laid down, resistance 
practically ceased. During the year after we took 
ofiice the number of arrests for violation of the 
Sunday liquor law sank to about one-half of what 
they had been during the last year of the Tammany 
rule; and yet the saloons were practically closed, 
whereas under Tammany most of them had been 
open. We adopted no new methods, save in so far 
as honesty could be called a new method. We did 
not enforce the law with unusual severity ; we mere- 
ly enforced it against the man with a pull, just as 
much as against the man without a pull. We re- 
fused to discriminate in favor of influential law- 
breakers. The professional politicians of low type, 
the liquor-sellers, the editors of some German news- 
papers, and the sensational press generally, attacked 
us with a ferocity which really verged on insanity. 
We went our way without regarding this opposi- 
tion, and gave a very wholesome lesson to the effect 
that a law should not be put on the statute books if 
it was not meant to be enforced, and that even an 
excise law could be honestly enforced in New York 
if the public officials so desired. The rich brewers 
and liquor-sellers, who had made money hand over 
fist by violating the excise law with the corrupt con- 
nivance of the police, raved with anger, and every 
corrupt politician and newspaper in the city gave 
them clamorous assistance; but the poor man, and 
notably the poor man's wife and children, benefited 



224 The New York Police Force 

very greatly by what we did. The hospital sur- 
geons found that their Monday labors were lessened 
by nearly one-half, owing to the startling diminu- 
tion in cases of injury due to drunken brawls; the 
work of the magistrates who sat in the city courts 
on Monday for the trial of the offenders of the pre- 
ceding twenty-four hours was correspondingly de- 
creased; while many a tenement-house family spent 
Sunday in the country because for the first time the 
head of the family could not use up his money in 
getting drunk. The one all-important element in 
good citizenship in our country is obedience to law, 
and nothing is more needed than the resolute en- 
forcement of law. This we gave. 

There was no species of mendacity to which our 
opponents did not resort in the effort to break us 
down in our purpose. For weeks they eagerly re- 
peated the tale that the saloons were as wide open 
as ever; but they finally abandoned this when the 
counsel for the Liquor Dealers' Association ad- 
mitted in open court, at the time when we secured 
the conviction of thirty of his clients and thereby 
brought the fight to an end, that over nine-tenths of 
the liquor-dealers had been rendered bankrupt be- 
cause we had stopped that illegal trade which gave 
them the best portion of their revenue. They then 
took the line that by devoting our attention to en- 
forcing the liquor law we permitted crime to in- 
crease. This, of course, offered a very congenial 
field for newspapers like the World, which exploited 
it to the utmost ; all the more readily since the mere 



The New York Police Force 225 

reiteration of the falsehood tended to encourage 
criminals, and so to make it not a falsehood. For 
a time the cry was not without influence, even with 
decent people, especially if they belonged to the class 
of the timid rich ; but it simply wasn't true, and so 
this bubble went down stream with the others. For 
six or eight months the cry grew, first louder, then 
lower ; and then it died away. A commentary upon 
its accuracy was furnished toward the end of our 
administration; for in February, 1897, the Judge 
who addressed the grand jury of the month was able 
to congratulate them upon the fact that there was 
at that time less crime in New York relatively to 
the population than ever before ; and this held true 
for our two years' service. 

In reorganizing the force the Board had to make, 
and did make, more promotions, more appointments, 
and more dismissals than had. ever before been made 
in the same length of time. We were so hampered 
by the law that we were not able to dismiss many of 
the men whom we should have dismissed, but we 
did turn out 200 men — more than four times as 
many as had ever been turned out in the same 
length of time before; all of them being dismissed 
after formal trial, and after having been given full 
opportunity to be heard in their own defence . We 
appointed about 1,700 men all told — again more than 
four times as many as ever before ; for we were al- 
lowed a large increase of the police force by law. 
We made 130 promotions; more than had been 
made in the six preceding years. 



226 The New York Police Force 

All this work was done in strictest accord with 
what we have grown to speak of as the principles of 
civil service reform. In making dismissals we paid 
heed merely to the man's efficiency and past record, 
refusing to consider outside pressure ; under the old 
regime no policeman with sufficient influence be- 
hind him was ever dismissed, no matter what his 
offence. In making promotions we took into ac- 
count not only the man's general record, his faith- 
fulness, industry and vigilance, but also his personal 
prowess as shown in any special feat of daring, 
whether in the arresting of criminals or in the sav- 
ing of life — for the police service is military in 
character, and we wished to encourage the military 
virtues. In making appointments we found that it 
was practicable to employ a system of rigid com- 
petitive examinations, which, as finally perfected, 
combined a very severe physical examination with 
a mental examination such as could be passed by 
any man who had attended one of our public 
schools. Of course there was also a rigid investiga- 
tion of character. Theorists have often sneered at 
civil service reform as "impracticable;" and I am 
very far from asserting that written competitive 
examinations are always applicable, or that they 
may not sometimes be merely stop-gaps, used only 
because they are better than the methods of appoint- 
ing through political indorsement: but most cer- 
tainly the system worked admirably in the Police 
Department. We got the best lot of recruits for 
patrolmen that had ever been obtained in the history 



The New York Police Force 227 

of the force, and we did just as well in our exam- 
inations for matrons and police surgeons. The up- 
lifting of the force was very noticeable, both physi- 
cally and mentally. The best men we got were those 
who had served for three years or so in the Army 
or Navy. Next to these came the railroad men. 
One noticeable feature of the work was that we 
greatly raised the proportion of native-born, until, 
of the last hundred appointed, ninety-four per cent, 
were Americans by birth. Not once in a hundred 
times did we know the politics of the appointee, and 
we paid as little heed to this as to their religion. 

Another of our important tasks was seeing that 
the elections were carried on honestly. Under the 
old Tammany rule the cheating was gross and flag- 
rant, and the police were often deliberately used to 
facilitate fraudulent practices at the polls. This 
came about in part from the very low character of 
the men put in as election officers. By conducting 
a written examination of the latter, and supplement- 
ing this by a careful inquiry into their character, in 
which we invited any decent outsiders to assist, we 
very distinctly raised their calibre. To show how 
necessary our examinations were, I may mention that 
before each election held under us we were obliged 
to reject, for moral or mental shortcomings, over 
a thousand of the men whom the regular party or- 
ganizations, exercising their legal rights, proposed 
as election officers. We then merely had to make 
the police thoroughly understand that their sole duty 
was to guarantee an honest election, and that they 



228 The New York Police Force 

would be punished with the utmost rigor if they in- 
terfered with honest citizens on the one hand, or 
failed to prevent fraud and violence on the other. 
The result was that the elections of 1895 and 1896 
were by far the most honest and orderly ever held 
in New York City. 

There were a number of other ways in which 
we sought to reform the police force, less important, 
but nevertheless very important. We paid particu- 
lar heed to putting a premium on specially meritori- 
ous conduct, by awarding certificates of honorable 
mention, and medals, where we were unable to pro- 
mote. We introduced a system of pistol practice 
by which, for the first time, the policemen were 
brought to a reasonable standard of efficiency in 
handling their revolvers. The Bertillon system for 
the identification of criminals was introduced. A 
bicycle squad was organized with remarkable results, 
this squad speedily becoming a kind of corps d' elite, 
whose individual members distinguished themselves 
not only by their devotion to duty, but by repeated 
exhibitions of remarkable daring and skill. One 
important bit of reform was abolishing the tramp 
lodging-houses, which had originally been started 
in the police stations, in a spirit of unwise philan- 
thropy. These tramp lodging-houses, not being 
properly supervised, were mere nurseries for pauper- 
ism and crime, tramps and loafers of every shade 
thronging to the city every winter to enjoy their 
benefits. We abolished them, a municipal lodging- 
house being substituted. Here all homeless wan- 



The New York Police Force 229 

derers were received, forced to bathe, given night- 
clothes before going to bed, and made to work next 
morning, and in addition they were so closely super- 
vised that habitual tramps and vagrants were speed- 
ily detected and apprehended. 

There was a striking increase in the honesty of 
the force, and there was a like increase in its effi- 
ciency. When we took office it is not too much to 
say that the great majority of the citizens of New 
York were firmly convinced that no police force 
could be both honest and efficient. They felt it to 
be part of the necessary order of things that a 
policeman should be corrupt, and they were con- 
vinced that the most efficient way of warring against 
certain forms of crime — notably crimes against per- 
son and property — was by enlisting the services of 
other criminals, and of purveyors of vice generally, 
giving them immunity in return for their aid. Be- 
fore we took power the ordinary purveyor of vice 
was allowed to ply his or her trade unmolested, 
partly in consideration of paying blackmail to the 
police, partly in consideration of giving information 
about any criminal who belonged to the unprotected 
classes. We at once broke up this whole business 
of blackmail and protection, and made war upon all 
criminals alike, instead of getting the assistance of 
half in warring on the other half. Nevertheless, so 
great was the improvement in the spirit of the force, 
that, although deprived of their former vicious allies 
they actually did better work than ever before 
aeainst those criminals who threatened life and 



230 The New York Police Force 

property. Relatively to the population, fewer crimes 
of violence occurred during our administration of 
the Board than in any previous two years of the 
city's history in recent times ; and the total number 
of arrests of criminals increased, while the number 
of cases in which no arrest followed the commission 
of crime decreased. The detective bureau nearly 
doubled the number of arrests made compared with 
the year before we took office ; obtaining, moreover, 
365 convictions of felons and 215 convictions for 
misdemeanors, as against 269 and 105 respectively 
for the previous year. At the same time every at- 
tempt at riot or disorder was summarily checked, 
and all gangs of violent criminals brought into im- 
mediate subjection; while on the other hand the 
immense mass meetings and political parades were 
handled with such care that not a single case of 
clubbing of any innocent citizen was reported. 

The result of our labors was of value to the city, 
for we gave the citizens better protection than they 
had ever before received, and at the same time cut 
out the corruption which was eating away civic 
morality. We showed conclusively that it was pos- 
sible to combine both honesty and efficiency in hand- 
ling the police. We were attacked with the most 
bitter animosity by every sensational newspaper 
and every politician of the baser sort, not because 
of our shortcomings, but because of what w^e did 
that was good. We enforced the laws as they were 
on the statute books, we broke up blackmail, we kept 
down the spirit of disorder, and repressed rascality, 



The New York Police Force 231 

and we administered the force with an eye single to 
the welfare of the city. In doing this we encoun- 
tered, as we had expected, the venomous opposition 
of all men whose interest it was that corruption 
should continue, or who were of such dull morality 
that they were not willing to see honesty triumph at 
the cost of strife. 



Ill 

HOW NOT TO HELP OUR POORER 
BROTHER * 

AFTER the publication of my article in the Sep- 
tember Reviezv of Reviews on the Vice-Presi- 
dential candidates, I received the following very 
manly, and very courteous, letter from the Honor- 
able Thomas Watson, then the candidate with Mr. 
Bryan on the Populist ticket for Vice-President. I 
publish it with his permission : 

Hon. Theodore Roosevelt: 

It pains me to be misunderstood by those whose 
good opinion I respect, and upon reading your 
trenchant article in the September number of the 
Review of Reviews the impulse was strong to write 
to you. 

When you take your stand for honester govern- 
ment and for juster laws in New York, as you have 
so courageously done, your motives must be the 
same as mine — for you do not need the money your 
office gives you. I can understand, instinctively, 
what you feel — what your motives are. You merely 
obey a law of your nature which puts you into mor- 
tal combat with what you think is wrong. You fight 

* Review of Reviews, January, 1897. 
(232) 



Our Poorer Brother 233 

because your own sense of self-respect and self- 
loyalty compels you to fight. Is not this so ? 

If in Georgia and throughout the South we have 
conditions as intolerable as those that surround you 
in New York, can you not realize why I make war 
upon them ? 

Tammany itself has grown great because mis- 
taken leaders of the Southern Democracy catered to 
its Kellys and Crokers and feared to defy them. 

The first "roast" I ever got from the Democratic 
press of this State followed a speech I had made de- 
nouncing Tammany, and denouncing the craven 
leaders who obeyed Tammany. 

It is astonishing how one honest man may hon- 
estly misjudge another. 

My creed does not lead me to dislike the men who 
run a bank, a factory, a railroad, or a foundry. I 
do not hate a man for owning a bond, and having 
a bank account, or having cash loaned at interest. 

Upon the other hand, I think each should make 
all the profit in business he fairly can ; but I do be- 
lieve that the banks should not exercise the sov- 
ereign power of issuing money, and I do believe that 
all special privileges granted, and all exemption from 
taxation, work infinite harm. I do believe that the 
wealth of the Republic is practically free from fed- 
eral taxation, and that the burdens of government 
fall upon the shoulders of those least able to bear 
them. 

If you could spend an evening with me among 
my books and amid my family, I feel quite sure 



234 Our Poorer Brother 

you would not again class me with those who make 
war upon the "decencies and elegancies of civilized 
life." And if you could attend one of my great 
political meetings in Georgia, and see the good men 
and good women who believe in Populism you 
would not continue to class them with those who 
vote for candidates upon the "no undershirt" plat- 
form. 

In other words, if you understood me and mine 
your judgment of us would be different. 

The "cracker" of the South is simply the man 
who did not buy slaves to do his work. He did it 
all himself — like a man. Some of our best generals 
in war, and magistrates in peace, have come from 
the "cracker" class. As a matter of fact, however, 
my own people, from my father back to Revolution- 
ary times, were slave-owners and land-owners. In 
the first meeting held in Georgia to express sympathy 
with the Boston patriots my great-great-grandfather 
bore a prominent part, and in the first State Legisla- 
ture ever convened in Georgia one of my ancestors 
was the representative of his county. 

My grandfather was wealthy, and so was my 
father. My boyhood was spent in the idleness of 
a rich man's son. It was not until I was in my teens 
that misfortune overtook us, sent us homeless into 
the world, and deprived me of the thorough collegi- 
ate training my father intended for me. 

At sixteen years of age I thus had to commence 
life moneyless, and the weary years I spent among 
the poor, the kindness I received in their homes, and 



Our Poorer Brother 235 

the acquaintance I made with the hardship of their 
Hves, gave me that profound sympathy for them 
which I yet retain — though I am no longer poor 
myself. 

Pardon the liberty I take in intruding this letter 
upon you. I have followed your work in New York 
with admiring sympathy, and have frequently writ- 
ten of it in my paper. While hundreds of miles sep- 
arate us, and our tasks and methods have been widely 
different, I must still believe that we have much in 
common, and that the ruling force which actuates 
us both is to challenge wrong and to fight the bat- 
tles of good government. 

Very respectfully yours, 
(Signed) Thos. E. Watson. 

Thompson, Ga. 
August so, 1896. 

I intended to draw a very sharp line between Mr. 
Watson and many of those associated with him in 
the same movement; and certain of the sentences 
which he quotes as if they were meant to apply to 
him were, on the contrary, meant to apply generally 
to the agitators who proclaimed both him and Mr. 
Bryan as their champions, and especially to many of 
the men who were running on the Populist tickets in 
different States. To Mr. Watson's own sincerity 
and courage I thought I had paid full tribute, and if 
I failed in any way I wish to make good that failure. 
I was in Washington when Mr. Watson was in Con- 
gress, and I know how highly he was esteemed per- 



236 Our Poorer Brother 

sonally by his colleagues, even by those differing 
very widely from him in matters of principle. The 
stanchest friends of order and decent government 
fully and cordially recognized Mr. Watson's hon- 
esty and good faith — men, for instance, like Senator 
Lodge, of Massachusetts, and Representative Bel- 
lamy Storer, of Ohio. Moreover, I sympathize as 
little as Mr. Watson with denunciation of the 
"cracker," and I may mention that one of my fore- 
fathers was the first Revolutionary Governor of 
Georgia at the time that Mr. Watson's ancestor sat 
in the first Revolutionary Legislature of the State. 
Mr. Watson himself embodies not a few of the very 
attributes the lack of which we feel so keenly in many 
of our public men. He is brave, he is earnest, he is 
honest, he is disinterested. For many of the wrongs 
which he wishes to remedy, I, too, believe that a 
remedy can be found, and for this purpose I would 
gladly strike hands with him. All this makes it a 
matter of the keenest regret that he should advocate 
certain remedies that we deem even worse than the 
wrongs complained of, and should strive in dark- 
ling ways to correct other wrongs, or rather inequali- 
ties and sufferings, which exist, not because of the 
shortcomings of society, but because of the existence 
of human nature itself. 

There are plenty of ugly things about wealth and 
its possessors in the present age, and I suppose there 
have been in all ages. There are many rich people 
who so utterly lack patriotism, or show such sordid 
and selfish traits of character, or lead such mean 



Our Poorer Brother 237 

and vacuous lives, that all right-minded men must 
look upon them with angry contempt; but, on the 
whole, the thrifty are apt to be better citizens than 
the thriftless; and the worst capitalist can not harm 
laboring men as they are harmed by demagogues. 
As the people of a State grow more and more intelli- 
gent the State itself may be able to play a larger and 
larger part in the life of the community, while at 
the same time individual effort may be given freer 
and less restricted movement along certain lines; 
but it is utterly unsafe to give the State more than 
the minimum of power just so long as it contains 
masses of men who can be moved by the pleas and 
denunciations of the average Socialist leader of to- 
day. There may be better schemes of taxation than 
those at present employed ; it may be wise to devise 
inheritance taxes, and to impose regulations on the 
kinds of business which can be carried on only under 
the especial protection of the State ; and where there 
is a real abuse by wealth it needs to be, and in this 
country generally has been, promptly done away 
with; but the first lesson to teach the poor man is 
that, as a whole, the wealth in the community is dis- 
tinctly beneficial to him ; that he is better off in the 
long run because other men are well off; and that 
the surest way to destroy what measure of prosper- 
ity he may have is to paralyze industry and the well- 
being of those men who have achieved success. 

I am not an empiricist; I would no more deny 
that sometimes human affairs can be much bettered 
by legislation than I would affirm that they can al- 



238 Our Poorer Brother 

ways be so bettered. I would no more make a fetich 
of unrestricted individualism than I would admit 
the power of the State off-hand and radically to re- 
construct society. It may become necessary to inter- 
fere even more than we have done with the right of 
private contract, and to shackle cunning as we have 
shackled force. All I insist upon is that we must 
be sure of our ground before trying to get any legis- 
lation at all, and that we must not expect too much 
from this legislation, nor refuse to better ourselves 
a little because we can not accomplish everything 
at a jump. Above all, it is criminal to excite anger 
and discontent without proposing a remedy, or only 
proposing a false remedy. The worst foe of the 
poor man is the labor leader, whether philanthropist 
or politician, who tries to teach him that he is a vic- 
tim of conspiracy and injustice, when in reality he is 
merely working out his fate with blood and sweat 
as the immense majority of men who are worthy 
of the name always have done and always will have 
to do. 

The difference between what can and what can 
not be done by law is well exemplified by our expe- 
rience with the negro problem, an experience of 
which Mr. Watson must have ample practical knowl- 
edge. The negroes were formerly held in slavery. 
This v/as a wrong which legislation could remedy, 
and which could not be remedied except by legisla- 
tion. Accordingly they were set free by law. This 
having been done, many of their friends believed 
that in some way, by additional legislation, we could 



Our Poorer Brother 239 

at once put them on an intellectual, social, and busi- 
ness equality with the whites. The effort has failed 
completely. In large sections of the country the ne- 
groes are not treated as they should be treated, and 
politically in particular the frauds upon them have 
been so gross and shameful as to awaken not merely 
indignation but bitter wrath ; yet the best friends of 
the negro admit that his hope lies, not in legislation, 
but in the constant working of those often unseen 
forces of the national life which are greater than all 
legislation. 

It is but rarely that great advances in general 
social well-being can be made by the adoption of 
some far-reaching scheme, legislative or otherwise; 
normally they come only by gradual growth, and by 
incessant effort to do first one thing, then another, 
and then another. Quack remedies of the universal 
cure-all type are generally as noxious to the body 
politic as to the body corporal. 

Often the head-in-the-air social reformers, be- 
cause people of sane and wholesome minds will not 
favor their wild schemes, themselves decline to favor 
schemes for practical reform. For the last two years 
there has been an honest effort in New York to give 
the city good government, and to work intelligently 
for better social conditions, especially in the poorest 
quarters. We have cleaned the streets; we have 
broken the power of the ward boss and the saloon- 
keeper to work injustice ; we have destroyed the 
most hideous of the tenement houses in which poor 
people were huddled like swine in a sty; we have 



240 Our Poorer Brother 

made parks and play-grounds for the children in 
the crowded quarters ; in every possible way we have 
striven to make life easier and healthier, and to 
give man and woman a chance to do their best work ; 
while at the same time we have warred steadily 
against the pauper-producing, maudlin philanthropy 
of the free-soup kitchen and tramp lodging-house 
kind. In all this we have had practically no help 
from either the parlor socialists or the scarcely more 
noxious beer-room socialists who are always howl- 
ing about the selfishness of the rich and their unwill- 
ingness to do anything for those less well off. 

There are certain labor unions, certain bodies of 
organized labor — notably those admirable organiza- 
tions which include the railway conductors, the loco- 
motive engineers and the firemen — which to my 
mind embody almost the best hope that there is for 
healthy national growth in the future; but bitter 
experience has taught men who work for reform in 
New York that the average labor leader, the average 
demagogue who shouts for a depreciated currency, 
or for the overthrow of the rich, will not do any- 
thing to help those who honestly strive to make 
better our civic conditions. There are immense 
numbers of workingmen to whom we can appeal 
with perfect confidence ; but too often we find that a 
large proportion of the men who style themselves 
leaders of organized labor are influenced only by 
sullen short-sighted hatred of what they do not 
understand, and are deaf to all appeals, whether to 
their national or to their civic patriotism. 



Our Poorer Brother 241 

^ What I most grudge in all this is the fact that 
sincere and zealous men of high character and hon- 
est purpose, men like Mr. Watson, men and women 
such as those he describes as attending his Populist 
meetings, or such as are to be found in all strata 
of our society, from the employer to the hardest- 
worked day laborer, go astray in their methods, and 
are thereby prevented from doing the full work for 
good they ought to. When a man goes on the 
wrong road himself he can do very little to guide 
others aright, even though these others are also on 
the wrong road. There are many wrongs to be 
righted; there are many measures of relief to be 
pushed ; and it is a pity that when they are fighting 
what is bad and championing what is good, the men 
who ought to be our most effective allies should 
deprive themselves of usefulness by the wrong- 
headedness of their position. Rich men and poor 
men both do wrong on occasions, and whenever a 
specific instance of this can be pointed out all citizens 
alike should join in punishing the wrong-doer. 
Honesty and right-mindedness should be the tests; 
not wealth or poverty. 

In our municipal administration here in New 
York we have acted with an equal hand toward 
wrong-doers of high and low degree. The Board of 
Health condemns the tenement-house property of 
the rich land-owner, whether this land-owner be 
priest or layman, banker or railroad president, law- 
yer or manager of a real estate business; and it 
pays no heed to the intercession of any politician, 

" Vol. I. 



242 Our Poorer Brother 

whether this poHtician be CathoHc or Protestant, 
Jew or Gentile. At the same time the PoHce Depart- 
ment promptly suppresses, not only the criminal, 
but the rioter. In other words, we do strict justice. 
We feel we are defrauded of help to which we are 
entitled when men who ought to assist in any work 
to better the condition of the people decline to aid 
us because their brains are turned by dreams only 
worthy of a European revolutionist. 

Many workingmen look with distrust upon laws 
which really would help them; laws for the intelli- 
gent restriction of immigration, for instance. I have 
no sympathy with mere dislike for immigrants ; there 
are classes and even nationalities of them which 
stand at least on an equality with the citizens of 
native birth, as the last election showed. But in the 
interest of our workingmen we must in the end 
keep out laborers who are ignorant, vicious, and with 
low standards of life and comfort, just as we have 
shut out the Chinese. 

Often labor leaders and the like denounce the 
present conditions of society, and especially of our 
political life, for shortcomings which they them- 
selves have been instrumental in causing. In our 
cities the misgovernment is due, not to the misdeeds 
of the rich, but to the low standard of honesty and 
morality among the citizens generally; and nothing 
helps the corrupt politician more than substituting 
either wealth or poverty for honesty as the standard 
by which to try a candidate. A few months ago a 
socialistic reformer in New York was denouncing 



Our Poorer Brother 243 

the corruption caused by rich men because a certain 
'judge was suspected of giving information in ad- 
vance as to a decision in a case involving the in- 
terests of a great corporation. Now this judge had 
been elected some years previously, mainly because 
he was supposed to be a representative of the "poor 
man"; and the socialistic reformer himself, a year 
ago, was opposing the election of Mr. Beaman as 
judge because he was one of the firm of Evarts & 
Choate, who were friends of various millionaires 
and were counsel for various corporations. But 
if Mr. Beaman had been elected judge no human 
being, rich or poor, would have dared so much as 
hint at his doing anything improper. 

Something can be done by good laws; more can 
be done by honest administration of the laws; but 
most of all can be done by frowning resolutely upon 
the preachers of vague discontent ; and by upholding 
the true doctrine of self-reliance, self-help, and self- 
mastery. This doctrine sets forth many things. 
Among them is the fact that though a man can oc- 
casionally be helped when he stumbles, yet that it 
is useless to try to carry him when he will not or 
can not walk ; and worse than useless to try to bring 
down the work and reward of the thrifty and in- 
telligent to the level of the capacity of the weak, 
the shiftless, and the idle. It further shows that 
the maudlin philanthropist and the maudlin senti- 
mentalist are almost as noxious as the demagogue, 
and that it is even more necessary to temper mercy 
with justice than justice with mercy. 



244 Our Poorer Brother 

The worst lesson that can be taught a man is to 
rely upon others and to whine over his sufferings. 
If an American is to amount to anything he must 
rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must 
take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle 
to envy the luck of others; he must face life with 
resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept 
defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his 
fellow-men a responsibility which is not theirs. 

Let me say in conclusion, that I do not write in 
the least from the standpoint of those whose asso- 
ciation is purely with what are called the wealthy 
classes. The men with whom I have worked and as- 
sociated most closely during the last couple of years 
here in New York, with whom I have shared what 
is at least an earnest desire to better social and civic 
conditions (neither blinking what is evil nor being 
misled by the apostles of a false remedy), and 
with whose opinions as to what is right and practical 
my own in the main agree, are not capitalists, save 
as all men who by toil earn, and with prudence save, 
money are capitalists. They include reporters on 
the daily papers, editors of magazines, as well as of 
newspapers, principals in the public schools, young 
lawyers, young architects, young doctors, young 
men of business, who are struggling to rise in their 
profession by dint of faithful work, but who give 
some of their time to doing what they can for the 
city, and a number of priests and clergymen; but 
as it happens the list does not include any man of 
great wealth, or any of those men whose names are 



Our Poorer Brother 245 

in the public mind identified with great business 
corporations. Most of them have at one time or 
another in their hves faced poverty and know what 
it is ; none of them is more than well-to-do. They 
include Catholics and Protestants, Jews, and men 
who would be regarded as heterodox by professors 
of most recognized creeds ; some of them were born 
on this side, others are of foreign birth ; but they are 
all Americans, heart and soul, who fight out for 
themselves the battles of their own lives, meeting 
sometimes defeat and sometimes victory. They 
neither forget that man does owe a duty to his fel- 
lows, and should strive to do what he can to in- 
crease the well-being of the community; nor yet 
do they forget that in the long run the only way 
to help people is to make them help themselves. 
They are prepared to try any properly guarded 
legislative remedy for ills which they believe can 
be remedied; but they perceive clearly that it is 
both foolish and wicked to teach the average man 
who is not well off that some wrong or injustice 
has been done him, and that he should hope for 
redress elsewhere than in his own industry, honesty 
and intelligence. 



IV 

THE MONROE DOCTRINE* 



THE Monroe Doctrine should not be considered 
from any purely academic standpoint, but as 
a broad, general principle of living policy. It is 
to be justified not by precedent merely, but by the 
needs of the nation and the true interests of West- 
ern civilization. It, of course, adds strength to our 
position at this moment to show that the action of 
the national authorities is warranted by the actions 
of their predecessors on like occasions in time past, 
and that the line of policy we are now pursuing is 
that which has been pursued by all our statesmen of 
note since the Republic grew sufficiently powerful 
to mate what it said of weight in foreign affairs. 
But even if in time past we had been as blind to the 
national honor and welfare as are the men who at 
the present day champion the anti-American side of 
the Venezuelan question, it would now be necessary 
for statesmen who were both far-sighted and patri- 
otic to enunciate the principles for which the Monroe 
Doctrine stands. In other words, if the Monroe 
Doctrine did not already exist it would be necessary 
forthwith to create it. 

Let us first of all clear the question at issue by 



(246) 



* The Bachelor of Arts, March, 1896. 



The Monroe Doctrine 247 

brushing away one or two false objections. Lord 
Salisbury at first put in emphatic words his refusal 
in any way to recognize the Monroe Doctrine as part 
of the law of nations or as binding upon Great 
Britain. Most British statesmen and publicists fol- 
lowed his lead ; but recently a goodly number have 
shown an inclination to acquiesce in the views of 
Lord Salisbury's colleague, Mr. Chamberlain, who 
announces, with bland indifference to the expressed 
opinion of his nominal chief, that England does rec- 
ognize the existence of the Monroe Doctrine and 
never thought of ignoring it. Lord Salisbury him- 
self has recently shown symptoms of changing 
ground and taking this position ; while Mr. Balfour 
has gone still further in the right direction, and the 
Liberal leaders further yet. It is not very important 
to us how far Lord Salisbury and Mr. Chamberlain 
may diverge in their views, although of course, in 
the interests of the English-speaking peoples and of 
peace between England and the United States, we 
trust that Mr. Chamberlain's position will be sus- 
tained by Great Britain. But the attitude of our 
own people is important, and it would be amusing, 
were it not unpleasant, to see that many Americans, 
whose Americanism is of the timid and flabby type, 
have been inclined eagerly to agree with Lord Salis- 
bury. A very able member of the New York bar 
remarked the other day that he had not yet met the 
lawyer who agreed with Secretary Olney as to the 
legal interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. This 
remark was chiefly interesting as showing the law- 



248 The Monroe Doctrine 

yer's own limitations. It would not have been made 
if he had met the Justices of the Supreme Court, 
for instance ; but even on the unfounded supposition 
that his remark was well grounded, it would have 
had little more significance than if he had said that 
he had not yet met a dentist who agreed with Mr. 
Olney. The Monroe Doctrine is not a question of 
law at all. It is a question of policy. It is a ques- 
tion to be considered not only by statesmen, but by 
all good citizens. Lawyers, as lawyers, have ab- 
solutely nothing whatever to say about it. To argue 
that it can not be recognized as a principle of inter- 
national law, is a mere waste of breath. Nobody 
cares whether it is or is not so recognized, any more 
than any one cares whether the Declaration of In- 
dependence and Washington's farewell address are 
so recognized. 

The Monroe Doctrine may be briefly defined as 
forbidding European encroachment on American 
soil. It is not desirable to define it so rigidly as 
to prevent our taking into account the varying de- 
grees of national interest in varying cases. The 
United States has not the slightest wish to estab- 
lish a universal protectorate over other American 
States, or to become responsible for their misdeeds. 
If one of them becomes involved in an ordinary quar- 
rel with a European power, such quarrel must be 
settled between them by any one of the usual meth- 
ods. But no European State is to be allowed to ag- 
grandize itself on American soil at the expense of 
any American State. Furthermore, no transfer of 



The Monroe Doctrine 249 

an American colony from one European State to 
another is to be permitted, if, in the judgment of 
the United States, such transfer would be hostile to 
its own interests. 

John Quincy Adams, who, during the Presidency 
of Monroe, first clearly enunciated the doctrine 
which bears his chief's name, asserted it as against 
both Spain and Russia. In the clearest and most 
emphatic terms he stated that the United States 
could not acquiesce in the acquisition of new terri- 
tory within the limits of any independent Ameri- 
can State, whether in the Northern or Southern 
Hemisphere, by any European power. He took 
this position against Russia when Russia threatened 
to take possession of what is now Oregon. He took 
this position as against Spain when, backed by 
other powers of Continental Europe, she threat- 
ened to reconquer certain of the Spanish-American 
States. 

This is precisely and exactly the position the 
United States has now taken in reference to Eng- 
land and Venezuela. It is idle to contend that there 
is any serious difference in the application of the doc- 
trine to the two sets of questions. An American 
may, of course, announce his opposition to the Mon- 
roe Doctrine, although by so doing he forfeits all 
title to far-seeing and patriotic devotion to the in- 
terests of his country. But he can not argue that 
the Monroe Doctrine does not apply to the present 
case, unless he argues that the Monroe Doctrine 
has no existence whatsoever. In fact, such argu- 



250 The Monroe Doctrine 

•■ 
ments are, on their face, so absurd that they need 

no refutation, and can be relegated where they be- 
long — to the realm of the hair-splitting schoolmen. 
They have no concern either for practical politi- 
cians or for historians with true historic insight. 

We have asserted the principles which underlie 
the Monroe Doctrine, not only against Russia and 
Spain, but also against France, on at least two dif- 
ferent occasions. The last and most important was 
when the French conquered Mexico and made it 
into an Empire. It is not necessary to recall to any 
one the action of our Government in the matter as 
soon as the Civil War came to an end. Suffice it 
to say that, under threat of our interposition, the 
French promptly abandoned Maximilian, and the 
latter's Empire fell. Long before this, however, and 
a score of years before the doctrine was christened 
by the name Monroe, even the timid statesmen of 
the Jeffersonian era embodied its principle in their 
protest against the acquisition of Louisiana by 
France, from Spain. Spain at that time held all of 
what Is now the Great West. France wished to 
acquire it. Our statesmen at once announced that 
they would regard as hostile to America the trans- 
fer of the territory in question from a weak to a 
strong European power. Under the American pres- 
sure the matter was finally settled by the sale of the 
territory in question to the United States. The 
principle which our statesmen then announced was 
in kind precisely the same as that upon which we 
should now act if Germany sought to acquire Cuba 



The Monroe Doctrine 251 

from Spain, or St. Thomas from the Danes. In 
either of these events it is hardly conceivable that 
the United States would hesitate to interfere, if nec- 
essary, by force of arms; and In so doing the na- 
tional authorities would undoubtedly be supported 
by the immense majority of the American people, 
and, indeed, by all save the men of abnormal timid- 
ity or abnormal political short-sightedness. 

Historically, therefore, the position of our repre- 
sentatives in the Venezuelan question is completely 
justified. It can not be attacked on academic grounds. 
The propriety of their position is even more easily 
defensible. 

Primarily, our action is based on national self- 
interest. In other words, it is patriotic. A cer- 
tain limited number of persons are fond of decrying 
patriotism as a selfish virtue, and strive with all their 
feeble might to inculcate in its place a kind of milk- 
and-water cosmopolitanism. These good people are 
never men of robust character or of imposing per- 
sonality, and the plea itself is not worth consider- 
ing. Some reformers may urge that in the ages' 
distant future patriotism, like the habit of monoga- 
mous marriage, will become a needless and obso- 
lete virtue; but just at present the man who loves 
other countries as much as he does his own is quite 
as noxious a member of society as the man who 
loves other women as much as he loves his wife. 
Love of country is an elemental virtue, like love of 
home, or like honesty or courage. No country will 
accomplish very much for the world at large unless 



252 The Monroe Doctrine 

it elevates itself. The useful member of a com- 
munity is the man who first and foremost attends to 
his own rights and his own duties, and who there- 
fore becomes better fitted to do his share in the 
common duties of all. The useful member of the 
brotherhood of nations is that nation which is most 
thoroughly saturated with the national idea, and 
which realizes most fully its rights as a nation and 
its duties to its own citizens. This is in no way 
incompatible with a scrupulous regard for the rights 
of other nations, or a desire to remedy the wrongs 
of suffering peoples. 

The United States ought not to permit any great 
military powers, which have no foothold on this 
continent, to establish such foothold; nor should 
they permit any aggrandizement of those who al- 
ready have possessions on the continent. We do 
not wish to bring ourselves to a position where we 
shall have to emulate the European system of enor- 
mous armies. Every true patriot, every man of 
statesman-like habit, should look forward to the 
day when not a single European power will hold a 
foot of American soil. At present it is not neces- 
sary to take the position that no European power 
shall hold American territory; but it certainly will 
become necessary, if the timid and selfish "peace at 
any price" men have their way, and if the United 
States fails to check at the outset European ag- 
grandizement on this continent. 

Primarily, therefore, it is to the interest of the 
citizens of the United States to prevent the further 



The Monroe Doctrine 2^2 

colonial growth of European powers in the Western 
Hemisphere. But this is also to the interest of all 
the people of the Western Hemisphere. At best, the 
inhabitants of a colony are in a cramped and un- 
natural state. At the worst, the establishment of a 
colony prevents any healthy popular growth. Some 
time in the dim future it may be that all the En- 
glish-speaking peoples will be able to unite in some 
kind of confederacy. However desirable this would 
be, it is, under existing conditions, only a dream. 
At present the only hope for a colony that wishes to 
attain full moral and mental growth is to become 
an independent State, or part of an independent 
State. No English colony now stands on a footing 
of genuine equality with the parent State. As long 
as the Canadian remains a colonist, he remains in 
a position which is distinctly inferior to that of his 
cousins, both in England and in the United States. 
The Englishman at bottom looks down on the Ca- 
nadian as he does on any one who admits his in- 
feriority, and quite properly, too. The American, 
on the other hand, with equal propriety, regards the 
Canadian with the good-natured condescension al- 
ways felt by the freeman for the man who is not 
free. A funny instance of the English attitude to- 
ward Canada was shown after Lord Dunraven's in- 
glorious fiasco last September, when the Canadian 
yachtsman, Rose, challenged for the America's cup. 
The English journals repudiated him on the express 
ground that a Canadian was not an Englishman and 
not entitled to the privileges of an Englishman. In 



254 The Monroe Doctrine 

their comments, many of them showed a disHke 
for Americans which almost rose to hatred. The 
feehng they displayed for the Canadians was not one 
of dislike. It was one of contempt. 

Under the best of circumstances, therefore, a col- 
ony is in a false position. But if the colony is in a 
region where the colonizing race has to do its work 
by means of other inferior races the condition is 
much worse. From the standpoint of the race little 
or nothing has been gained by the English conquest 
and colonization of Jamaica. It has merely been 
turned into a negro island, with a future, seemingly, 
much like that of San Domingo. British Guiana, 
however well administered, is nothing but a colony 
where a few hundred or few thousand white men 
hold the superior positions, while the bulk of the 
population is composed of Indians, Negroes, and 
Asiatics. Looked at through the vista of the centu- 
ries, such a colony contains less promise of true 
growth than does a State like Venezuela or Ecua- 
dor. The history of most of the South American 
republics has been both mean and bloody ; but there 
is at least a chance that they may develop, after 
infinite tribulations and suffering, into a civiliza- 
tion quite as high and stable as that of such a Eu- 
ropean power as Portugal. But there is no such 
chance for any tropical American colony owned by 
a Northern European race. It is distinctly in the 
interest of civilization that the present States in 
the two Americas should develop along their own 
lines, and however desirable it is that many of them 



The Monroe Doctrine 255 

should receive European immigration, it is highly 
undesirable that any of them should be under Eu- 
ropean control. 

So much for the general principles, and the justi- 
fication, historically and morally, of the Monroe 
Doctrine. Now take the specific case at issue. Great 
Britain has a boundary dispute with Venezuela. 
She claims as her own a territory which Venezuela 
asserts to be hers, a territory which in point of size 
very nearly equals the Kingdom of Italy. Our Gov- 
ernment, of course, can not, if it wishes to remain 
true to the traditions of the Monroe Doctrine, submit 
to the acquisition by England of such an enormous 
tract of territory, and it must therefore find out 
whether the English claims are or are not well 
founded. It would, of course, be preposterous to 
lay down the rule that no European power should 
seize American territory which was not its own, and 
yet to permit the power itself to decide the question 
of the ownership of such territory. Great Britain 
refused to settle the question either by amicable 
agreement with Venezuela or by arbitration. All 
that remained for the United States, was to do what 
it actually did ; that is, to try and find out the facts 
for itself, by its own commission. If the facts show 
England to be in the right, well and good. If they 
show England to be in the wrong, we most certainly 
ought not to permit her to profit, at Venezuela's ex- 
pense, by her own wrong-doing. 

We are doing exactly what England would very 
properly do in a like case. Recently, when the 



256 The Monroe Doctrine 

German Emperor started to interfere in the Trans- 
vaal, England promptly declared her own* "Monroe 
Doctrine" for South Africa. We do not propose 
to see English filibusters try at the expense of Vene- 
zuela the same policy which recently came to such 
an ignominious end in the Transvaal, in a piece of 
weak, would-be buccaneering, which, it is perhaps 
not unfair to say, was fittingly commemorated in the 
verse of the new poet-laureate. 

It would be difficult to overestimate the good done 
in this country by the vigorous course already taken 
by the national Executive and Legislature in this 
matter. The lesson taught Lord Salisbury is one 
which will not soon be forgotten by English states- 
men. His position is false, and is recognized as 
false by the best English statesmen and publicists. 
If he does not consent to arrange the matter with 
Venezuela, it will have to be arranged in some way 
by arbitration. In either case, the United States 
gains its point. The only possible danger of war 
comes from the action of the selfish and timid men 
on this side of the water, who clamorously strive 
to misrepresent American, and to mJslead English, 
public opinion. If they succeed in persuading 
Lord Salisbury that the American people will 
back down if he presses them, they will do the 
greatest damage possible to both countries, for 
they will render war, at some time in the future, 
almost inevitable. 

Such a war we would deplore; but it must be 
distinctly understood that we would deplore it very 



The Monroe Doctrine 257 

much more for England's sake than for our own; 
for whatever might be the initial fortunes of the 
struggle, or the temporary damage and loss to the 
United States, the mere fact that Canada would in- 
evitably be rent from England in the end would 
make the outcome an English disaster. 

We do not in any way seek to become the sponsor 
of the South American States. England has the 
same right to protect her own subjects, or even in 
exceptional cases to interfere to stop outrages in 
South America, that we have to interfere in Ar- 
menia — and it is to be regretted that our represen- 
tatives do not see their way clear to interfere for 
Armenia. But England should not acquire terri- 
tory at the expense of Venezuela any more than we 
should acquire it at the expense of Turkey. 

The mention of Armenia brings up a peculiarly 
hypocritical plea which has been advanced against 
us in this controversy. It has been solemnly alleged 
that our action in Venezuela has hampered England 
in the East and has prevented her interfering on be- 
half of Armenia. We do not wish to indulge in 
recriminations, but when such a plea is advanced, 
the truth, however unpleasant, must be told. The 
great crime of this century against civilization has 
been the upholding of the Turk by certain Christian 
powers. To England's attitude in the Crimean War, 
and after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, the pres- 
ent Armenian horror is primarily due. Moreover, 
' for six months before the Venezuelan question arose 
England had looked on motionless while the Turks 



258 The Monroe Doctrine 

perpetrated on their wretched subjects wrongs that 
would blast the memory of Attila. 

We do not wish to be misunderstood. We have 
no feeling- against England. On the contrary, we 
regard her as being well in advance of the great 
powers of Continental Europe, and we have more 
sympathy with her. In general, her success tells 
for the success of civilization, and we wish her well. 
But where her interests enlist her against the prog- 
ress of civilization and in favor of the oppression 
of other nationalities who are struggling upward, 
our sympathies are immediately forfeited. 

It is a matter of serious concern to every college 
man, and, indeed, to every man who believes in the 
good effects of a liberal education, to see the false 
views which seem to obtain among so many of the 
leaders of educated thought, not only upon the Mon- 
roe Doctrine, but upon every question which involves 
the existence of a feeling of robust Americanism. 
Every educated man who puts himself out of touch 
with the current of American thought, and who on 
conspicuous occasions assumes an attitude hostile to 
the interest of America, is doing what he can to 
weaken the influence of educated men in American 
life. The crude, ill-conditioned jealousy of educa- 
tion, which is so often and so lamentably shown by 
large bodies of our people, is immensely stimulated 
by the action of those prominent educated men in 
whom education seems to have destroyed the strong, 
virile virtues and especially the spirit of American- 
ism. 



The Monroe Doctrine 259 

No nation can achieve real greatness if its people 
are not both essentially moral and essentially manly ; 
both sets of qualities are necessary. It is an admi- 
rable thing to possess refinement and cultivation, but 
the price is too dear if they must be paid for at the 
cost of the rugged fighting qualities which make 
a man able to do a man's work in the world, and 
which make his heart beat with that kind of love of 
country which is shown not only in readiness to try 
to make her civic life better, but also to stand up 
manfully for her when her honor and influence are 
at stake in a dispute with a foreign power. A heavy 
responsibility rests on the educated man. It is a 
double discredit to him to go wrong, whether his 
shortcomings take the form of shirking his every- 
day civic duties, or of abandonment of the nation's 
rights in a foreign quarrel. He must no more be 
misled by the sneers of those who always write "pa- 
triotism" between inverted commas than by the 
coarser, but equally dangerous, ridicule of the poli- 
ticians who jeer at "reform." It is as unmanly to 
be taunted by one set of critics into cowardice as it 
is to be taunted by the other set into dishonesty. 

There are many upright and honorable men who 
take the wrong side, that is, the anti-American side, 
of the Monroe Doctrine because they are too short- 
sighted or too unimaginative to realize the hurt to 
the nation that would be caused by the adoption of 
their views. There are other men who take the 
wrong view simply because they have not thought 
much of the matter, or are in unfortunate surround- 



26o The Monroe Doctrine 

ings, by which they have been influenced to their 
own moral hurt. There are yet other men in whom 
the mainspring of the opposition to that branch of 
American pohcy known as the Monroe Doctrine is 
sheer timidity. This is sometimes the ordinary 
timidity of wealth. Sometimes, however, it is pe- 
culiarly developed among educated men whose edu- 
cation has tended to make them over-cultivated and 
over-sensitive to foreign opinion. They are gener- 
ally men who undervalue the great fighting qualities, 
without which no nation can ever rise to the first 
rank. 

The timidity of wealth is proverbial, and it was 
well illustrated by the attitude taken by too many 
people of means at the time of the Venezuela trouble. 
Many of them, including bankers, merchants, and 
railway magnates, criticised the action of the Presi- 
dent and the Senate, on the ground that it had caused 
business disturbance. Such a position is essentially 
ignoble. When a question of national honor or of 
national right or wrong is at stake, no question of 
financial interest should be considered for a mo- 
ment. Those wealthy men who wish the abandon- 
ment of the Monroe Doctrine because its assertion 
may damage their business, bring discredit to them- 
selves, and, so far as they are able, discredit to the 
nation of which they are a part. 

It is an evil thing for any man of education to 
forget that education should intensify patriotism, 
and that patriotism must not only be shown by striv- 
ing to do good to the country from within, but by 



The Monroe Doctrine 261 

readiness to uphold its interests and honor, at any 
cost, when menaced from without. Educated men 
owe to the community the serious performance of 
this duty. We need not concern ourselves with the 
emigre educated man, the American who deliber- 
ately takes up his permanent abode abroad, whether 
in London or Paris; he is usually a man of weak 
character, unfitted to do good work either abroad or 
at home, who does what he can for his country by 
relieving it of his presence. But the case is other- 
wise with the American who stays at home, and tries 
to teach the youth of his country to disbelieve in the 
country's rights, as against other countries, and to 
regard it as the sign of an enlightened spirit to de- 
cry the assertion of those rights by force of arms. 
This man may be inefficient for good ; but he is ca- 
pable at times of doing harm, because he tends to 
make other people inefficient likewise. In our mu- 
nicipal politics there has long been evident a tendency 
to gather in one group the people who have no 
scruples, but who are very efficient, and in another 
group the amiable people who are not efficient at all. 
This is but one manifestation of the general and very 
unwholesome tendency among certain educated peo- 
ple to lose the power of doing efficient work as they 
acquire refinement. Of course in the long run a 
really good education will give not only refinement, 
but also an increase of power, and of capacity for 
efficient work. But the man who forgets that a real 
education must include the cultivation of the fight- 
ing virtues is sure to manifest this tendency to ineffi- 



262 The Monroe Doctrine 

ciency. It is exhibited on a national scale by the 
educated men who take the anti-American side' of 
international questions. There are exceptions to 
the rule; but as a rule the healthy man, resolute to 
do the rough work of the world, and capable of feel- 
ing his veins tingle with pride over the great deeds 
of the men of his own nation, will naturally take 
the American side of such a question as the Monroe 
Doctrine. Similarly, the anaemic man of refine- 
ment and cultivation, whose intellect has been edu- 
cated at the expense of his character, and who 
shrinks from all these struggles through which alone 
the world moves on to greatness, is inclined to con- 
sider any expression of the Monroe Doctrine as truc- 
ulent and ill advised. 

Of course, many strong men who are good citizens 
on ordinary occasions take the latter view simply 
because they have been misled. The colonial habit 
of thought dies hard. It is to be wished that those 
who are cursed with it would, in endeavoring to 
emulate the ways of the Old World, endeavor to emu- 
late one characteristic which has been shared by 
every Old- World nation, and which is possessed 
to a marked degree by England. Every decent 
Englishman is devoted to his country, first, last, and 
all the time. An Englishman may or may not dis- 
like America, but he is invariably for England and 
against America when any question arises between 
them ; and I heartily respect him for so being. Let 
our own people of the partially colonial type copy 
this peculiarity and it will be much to their credit. 



The Monroe Doctrine 263 

The finest speech that for many years has been 
dehvered by a college man to other college men was 
that made last spring by Judge Holmes, himself a 
gallant soldier of the Civil War, in that hall which 
Harvard has erected to commemorate those of her 
sons who perished when the North strove with the 
South. It should be graven on the heart of every 
college man, for it has in it that lift of the soul to- 
ward things heroic that makes the eyes burn and 
the veins thrill. It must be read in its entirety, for 
no quotation could do justice to its fine scorn of the 
mere money-maker, its lofty fealty to a noble ideal, 
and, above all, its splendid love of country and splen- 
did praise of the valor of those who strive on stricken 
fields that the honor of their nation may be upheld. 
It is strange, indeed, that in a country where 
words like those of Judge Holmes can be spoken, 
there should exist men who actually oppose the 
building of a navy by the United States, nay, even 
more, actually oppose so much as the strengthening 
of the coast defences, on the ground that they prefer 
to have this country too feeble to resent any insult, 
in order that it may owe its safety to the contemptu- 
ous forbearance which it is hoped this feebleness will 
inspire in foreign powers. No Tammany alderman, 
no venal legislator, no demagogue or corrupt poli- 
tician, ever strove more effectively than these men 
are striving to degrade the nation and to make one 
ashamed of the name of America. When we re- 
member that among them there are college gradu- 
ates, it is a relief to remember that the leaders on 



264 The Monroe Doctrine 

the side of manhness and of love of country, are 
also college graduates. Every believer in scholarship 
and in a liberal education, every believer in the robust 
qualities of heart, mind, and body without which 
cultivation and refinement are of no avail, must re- 
joice to think that, in the present crisis, college men 
have been prominent among the leaders whose far- 
sighted statesmanship and resolute love of country 
have made those of us who are really Americans 
proud of the nation. Secretary Olney is a graduate 
of Brown ; Senator Lodge, who took the lead in the 
Senate on this matter, is a graduate of Harvard; 
and no less than three members of the Boundary 
Commission are graduates of Yale. 



WASHINGTON'S FORGOTTEN MAXIM* 

A CENTURY has passed since Washington wrote 
"To be prepared for war is the most effectual 
means to promote peace." We pay to this maxim 
the Hp loyalty we so often pay to Washington's 
words; but it has never sunk deep into our hearts. 
Indeed of late years many persons have refused it 
even the poor tribute of lip loyalty, and prate about 
the iniquity of war as if somehow that was a justi- 
fication for refusing to take the steps which can 
alone in the long run prevent war or avert the dread- 
ful disasters it brings in its train. The truth of the 
maxim is so obvious to every man of really far- 
sighted patriotism that its mere statement seems trite 
and useless, and it is not over-creditable to either 
our intelligence or our love of country that there 
should be, as there is, need to dwell upon and am- 
plify such a truism. 

In this country there is not the slightest danger 
of an over-development of warlike spirit, and there 
never has been any such danger. In all our his- 
tory there has never been a time when preparedness 
for war was any menace to peace. On the contrary, 

* Address as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, before the 

Naval War College, June, 1897. 

12 (265) 

Vol. I. 



266 A Forgotten Maxim 

again and again we have owed peace to the fact that 
we were prepared for war; and in the only contest 
which we have had with a European power since 
the Revolution, the War of 1812, the struggle and all 
its attendant disasters were due solely to the fact 
that we were not prepared to face, and were not 
ready instantly to resent, an attack upon our honor 
and interest; while the glorious triumphs at sea 
which redeemed that war were due to the few prep- 
arations which we had actually made. We are a 
great peaceful nation; a nation of merchants and 
manufacturers, of farmers and mechanics ; a nation 
of workingmen, w^ho labor incessantly with head or 
hand. It is idle to talk of such a nation ever being 
led into a course of wanton aggression or conflict 
with military powers by the possession of a suffi- 
cient navy. 

The danger is of precisely the opposite character. 
If we forget that in the last resort we can only se- 
cure peace by being ready and willing to fight for 
it, we may some day have bitter cause to realize that 
a rich nation which is slothful, timid, or unwieldy is 
an easy prey for any people which still retains those 
most valuable of all qualities, the soldierly virtues. 
We but keep to the traditions of Washington, to the 
traditions of all the great Americans who struggled 
for the real greatness of America, when we strive 
to build up those fighting qualities for the lack of 
which in a nation, as in an individual, no refinement, 
no culture, no wealth, no material prosperity, can 
atone. 



A Forgotten Maxim 267 

Preparation for war is the surest guaranty for 
peace. Arbitration is an excellent thing, but ulti- 
mately those who wish to see this country at peace 
with foreign nations will be wise if they place re- 
liance upon a first-class fleet of first-class battleships 
rather than on any arbitration treaty which the wit 
of man can devise. Nelson said that the British fleet 
was the best negotiator in Europe, and there was 
much truth in the saying. Moreover, while we are 
sincere and earnest in our advocacy of peace, we 
must not forget that an ignoble peace is worse than 
any war. We should engrave in our legislative halls 
those splendid lines of Lowell : 

"Come, Peace! not like a mourner bowed 
For honor lost and dear ones wasted, 
But proud, to meet a people proud. 
With eyes that tell of triumph tasted!" 

Peace is a goddess only when she comes with 
sword girt on thigh. The ship of state can be 
steered safely only when it is always possible to 
bring her against any foe with "her leashed thun- 
ders gathering for the leap." A really great people, 
proud and high-spirited, would face all the disasters 
of war rather than purchase that base prosperity 
which is bought at the price of national honor. All 
the great masterful races have been fighting races, 
and the minute that a race loses the hard fighting 
virtues, then, no matter what else it may retain, no 
matter how skilled in commerce and finance, in 
science or art, it has lost its proud right to stand 
as the equal of the best. Cowardice in a race, as in 



268 A Forgotten Maxim 

an individual, is the unpardonable sin, and a wilful 
failure to prepare for danger may in its effects be 
as bad as cowardice. The timid man who can not 
fight, and the selfish, short-sighted, or foolish man 
who will not take the steps that will enable him to 
fight, stand on almost the same plane. 

It is not only true that a peace may be so ignoble 
and degrading as to be worse than any war; it is 
also true that it may be fraught with more blood- 
shed than most wars. Of this there has been melan- 
choly proof during the last two years. Thanks 
largely to the very unhealthy influence of the men 
whose business it is to speculate in the money 
market, and who approach every subject from the 
financial standpoint, purely; and thanks quite as 
much to the cold-blooded brutality and calculating 
timidity of many European rulers and statesmen, the 
peace of Europe has been preserved, while the Turk 
has been allowed to butcher the Armenians with 
hideous and unmentionable barbarity, and has actu- 
ally been helped to keep Crete in slavery. War has 
been averted at the cost of more bloodshed and in- 
finitely more suffering and degradation to wretched 
women and children than have occurred in any 
European struggle since the days of Waterloo. No 
war of recent years, no matter how wanton, has 
been so productive of horrible misery as the peace 
which the powers have maintained during the con- 
tinuance of the Armenian butcheries. The men who 
would preach this peace, and indeed the men who 
have preached universal peace in terms that have 



A Forgotten Maxim 269 

prepared the way for such peace as this, have in- 
flicted a wrong on humanity greater than could be 
inflicted by the most reckless and war-loving despot. 
Better a thousand times err on the side of over- 
readiness to fight, than to err on the side of tame 
submission to injury, or cold-blooded indifference 
to the misery of the oppressed. 

Popular sentiment is just when it selects as popu- 
lar heroes the men who have led in the struggle 
against malice domestic or foreign levy. No tri- 
umph of peace is quite so great as the supreme 
triumphs of war. The courage of the soldier, the 
courage of the statesman who has to meet storms 
which can be quelled only by soldierly qualities — 
this stands higher than any quality called out 
merely in time of peace. It is by no means neces- 
sary that we should have war to develop soldier- 
ly attributes and soldierly qualities; but if the 
peace we enjoy is of such a kind that it causes 
their loss, then it is far too dearly purchased, no 
matter what may be its attendant benefits. It 
may be that some time in the dim future of the race 
the need for war will vanish; but that time is yet 
ages distant. As yet no nation can hold its place in 
the world, or can do any work really worth doing, 
unless it stands ready to g^iard its rights with an 
armed hand. That orderly liberty which is both 
the foundation and the capstone of our civilization 
can be gained and kept only by men who are willing 
to fight for an ideal; who hold high the love of 
honor, love of faith, love of flag, and love of coun- 



270 A Forgotten Maxim 

try. It is true that no nation can be really great 
unless it is great in peace; in industry, integrity, 
honesty. Skilled intelligence in civic affairs and 
industrial enterprises alike ; the special ability of the 
artist, the man of letters, the man of science, and the 
man of business; the rigid determination to wrong 
no man, and to stand for righteousness — all these 
are necessary in a great nation. But it is also neces- 
sary that the nation should have physical no less 
than moral courage; the capacity to do and dare 
and die at need, and that grim and steadfast resolu- 
tion which alone will carry a great people through 
a great peril. The occasion may come at any instant 
when 

" 'T is man's perdition to be safe 
When for the truth he ought to die." 

All great nations have shown these qualities. 
The Dutch held but a little corner of Europe. Their 
industry, thrift, and enterprise in the pursuits of 
peace and their cultivation of the arts helped to 
render them great; but these qualities would have 
been barren had they not been backed by those 
sterner qualities which rendered them able to wrest 
their freedom from the cruel strength of Spain, and 
to guard it against the banded might of England and 
of France. The merchants and the artists of Hol- 
land did much for her ; but even more was done by 
the famished burghers who fought to the death on 
the walls of Haarlem and Leyden, and the great 
admirals who led their fleets to victory on the broad 
and narrow seas. 



A Forgotten Maxim 271 

England's history is rich in splendid names and 
splendid deeds. Her literature is even greater than 
that of Greece. In commerce she has stood in the 
modern world as more than ever Carthage was when 
civilization clustered in a fringe around the Medi- 
terranean. But she has risen far higher than ever 
Greece or Carthage rose, because she possesses also 
the great, masterful qualities which were possessed 
by the Romans who overthrew them both. Eng- 
land has been fertile in soldiers and administrators ; 
in men who triumphed by sea and by land; in ad- 
venturers and explorers who won for her the world's 
waste spaces ; and it is because of this that the En- 
glish-speaking race now shares with the Slav the 
fate of the coming years. 

We of the United States have passed most of our 
few years of national life in peace. We honor the 
architects of our wonderful material prosperity; we 
appreciate the necessity of thrift, energy, and busi- 
ness enterprise, and we know that even these are of 
no avail without the civic and social virtues. But we 
feel, after all, that the men who have dared greatly 
in war, or the work which is akin to war, are those 
who deserve best of the country. The men of 
Bunker Hill and Trenton, Saratoga and Yorktown, 
the men of New Orleans and Mobile Bay, Gettys- 
burg and Appomattox are those to whom we owe 
most. None of our heroes of peace, save a few 
great constructive statesmen, can rank with our he- 
roes of war. The Americans who stand highest on 
the list of the world's worthies are Washington, who 



272 A Forgotten Maxim 

fought to found the country which he afterward 
governed, and Lincoln, who saved it through the 
blood of the best and bravest in the land; Wash- 
ington, the soldier and statesman, the man of cool 
head, dauntless heart, and iron will, the greatest 
of good men and the best of great men; and Lin- 
coln, sad, patient, kindly Lincoln, who for four years 
toiled and suffered for the people, and when his work 
was done laid down his life that the flag which had 
been rent in sunder might once more be made whole 
and without a seam. 

It is on men such as these, and not on the advo- 
cates of peace at any price, or upon those so short- 
sighted that they refuse to take into account the 
possibility of war, that we must rely in every crisis 
which deeply touches the true greatness and true 
honor of the Republic. The United States has never 
once in the course of its history suffered harm be- 
cause of preparation for war, or because of entering 
into war. But we have suffered incalculable harm, 
again and again, from a foolish failure to prepare for 
war or from reluctance to fight when to fight was 
proper. The men who to-day protest against a navy, 
and protest also against every movement to carry out 
the traditional policy of the country in foreign af- 
fairs, and to uphold the honor of the flag, are them- 
selves but following in the course of those who pro- 
tested against the acquisition of the great West, 
and who failed to make proper preparations for the 
War of 1 81 2, or refused to support it after it had 
been made. They are own brothers to the men 



A Forgotten Maxim 273 

whose short-sightedness and supine indifference pre- 
vented any reorganization of the personnel of the 
Navy during the middle of the century, so that we 
entered upon the Civil War with captains seventy 
years old. They are close kin to the men who, when 
the Southern States seceded, wished to let the Union 
be disrupted in peace rather than restored through 
the grim agony of armed conflict. 

I do not believe that any considerable number of 
our citizens are stamped with this timid lack of 
patriotism. There are some doctrinaires whose eyes 
are so firmly fixed on the golden vision of universal 
peace that they can not see the grim facts of real 
life until they stumble over them, to their own 
hurt, and, what is much worse, to the possible un- 
doing of their fellows. There are some educated 
men in whom education merely serves to soften the 
fibre and to eliminate the higher, sterner qualities 
which tell for national greatness ; and these men 
prate about love for mankind, or for another coun- 
try, as being in some hidden way a substitute for love 
of their own country. What Is of more weight, there 
are not a few men of means who have made the 
till their fatherland, and who are always ready to 
balance a temporary interruption of money-making, 
or a temporary financial and commercial disaster, 
against the self-sacrifice necessary in upholding the 
honor of the nation and the glory of the flag. 

But after all these people, though often noisy, 
form but a small minority of the whole. They would 
be swept like chaff before the gust of popular fury 



274 A Forgotten Maxim 

which would surely come if ever the nation really 
saw and felt a danger or an insult. The real trouble 
is that in such a case this gust of popular fury would 
come too late. Unreadiness for war is merely ren- 
dered more disastrous by readiness to bluster; to 
talk defiance and advocate a vigorous policy in 
words, while refusing to back up these words by 
deeds, is cause for humiliation. It has always been 
true, and in this age it is more than ever true, that 
it is too late to prepare for war when the time for 
peace has passed. The short-sightedness of many 
people, the good-humored indifference to facts of 
others, the sheer ignorance of a vast number, and 
the selfish reluctance to insure against future danger 
by present sacrifice among yet others — these are the 
chief obstacles to building up a proper navy and 
carrying out a proper foreign policy. 

The men who opposed the War of 1812, and 
preferred to have the nation humiliated by unre- 
sented insult from a foreign power rather than see 
her suffer the losses of an honorable conflict, occu- 
pied a position little short of contemptible; but it 
was not much worse than that of the men who 
brought on the war and yet deliberately refused to 
make the preparations necessary to carry it to a suc- 
cessful conclusion. The visionary schemes for de- 
fending the country by gimboats, instead of by a fleet 
of seagoing battleships; the refusal to increase the 
Navy to a proper size; the determination to place 
reliance upon militia instead of upon regularly 
trained troops; and the disasters which followed 



A Forgotten Maxim 275 

upon each and every one of these determinations 
should be studied in every schoolbook in the land so 
as to enforce in the minds of all our citizens the 
truth of Washington's adage, that in time of peace 
it is necessary to prepare for war. 

All this applied in 18 12; but it applies v^ith ten- 
fold greater force novv^. Then, as nov^, it was the 
Navy upon which the country had to depend in the 
event of war with a foreign power; and then, as 
now, one of the chief tasks of a wise and far-seeing 
statesmanship should have been the upbuilding of a 
formidable fighting navy. In 1812 untold evils fol- 
lowed from the failure to provide such a fighting 
navy; for the splendid feats of our few cruisers 
merely showed what could have been done if we 
had had a great fleet of battleships. But ships, guns, 
and men were much more easily provided in time 
of emergency at the beginning of this century than 
at the end. It takes months to build guns and ships 
now, where it then took days, or at the most, weeks ; 
and it takes far longer now to train men to the man- 
agement of the vast and complicated engines with 
which war is waged. Therefore preparation is much 
more difficult, and requires a much longer time ; and 
yet wars are so much quicker, they last so compara- 
tively short a period, and can be begun so instantane- 
ously that there is very much less time than for- 
merly in which to make preparations. 

No battleship can be built inside of two years 
under no matter what stress of circumstances, for 
we have not in this country the plant to enable us to 



276 A Forgotten Maxim 

work faster. Cruisers would take almost as long. 
Even torpedo boats, the smallest of all, could not be 
put in first-class form under ninety days. Guns 
available ior* use against a hostile invader would re- 
quire two or three months; and in the case of the 
larger guns, the only ones really available for the 
actual shock of battle could not be made under eight 
months. Rifles and military munitions of every 
kind would require a corresponding length of time 
for preparation; in most cases we should have to 
build, not merely the weapons we need, but the plant 
with which to make them in any large quantity. 
Even if the enemy did not interfere with our efforts, 
which they undoubtedly would, it would, therefore, 
take from three to six months after the outbreak of 
a war, for which we were unprepared, before we 
could in the slightest degree remedy our unreadiness. 
During this six months it would be impossible to 
overestimate the damage that could be done by a 
resolute and powerful antagonist. Even at the end 
of that time we would only be beginning to prepare 
to parry his attack, for it would be two years before 
we could attempt to return it. Since the change in 
military conditions in modern times there has never 
been an instance in which a war between any two 
nations has lasted more than about two years. In 
most recent wars the operations of the first ninety 
days have decided the result of the conflict. All that 
followed has been a mere vain effort to strive against 
the stars in their courses by doing at the twelfth hour 
what it was useless to do after the eleventh. 



A Forgotten Maxim 277 

We must therefore make up our minds once for 
all to the fact that it is too late to make ready for 
war when the fight has once begun. The prepara- 
tion must come before that. In the case of the Civil 
War none of these conditions applied. In 1861 we 
had a good fleet, and the Southern Confederacy 
had not a ship. We were able to blockade the 
Southern ports at once, and we could improvise en- 
gines of war more than sufficient to put against those 
of an enemy who also had to improvise them, and 
who labored under even more serious disadvantages. 
The Monitor was got ready in the nick of time to 
meet the Merrimac, because the Confederates had to 
plan and build the latter while we were planning and 
building the former; but if ever we have to go to 
war with a modern military power we shall find its 
Merrimacs already built, and it will then be alto- 
gether too late to try to build Monitors to meet them. 

If this point needs any emphasis surely the history 
of the War of 181 2 applies to it. For twelve years 
before that war broke out even the blindest could 
see that we were almost certain to be drawn into 
hostilities with one or the other of the pair of com- 
batants whose battle-royal ended at Waterloo. Yet 
we made not the slightest preparation for war. The 
authorities at Washington contented themselves with 
trying to build a flotilla of gunboats which could 
defend our own harbors without making it necessary 
to take the offensive ourselves. We already pos- 
sessed a dozen first-class cruisers, but not a battle- 
ship of any kind. With almost incredible folly the 



278 A Forgotten Maxim 

very Congress that declared war voted down the bill 
to increase the Navy by twenty battleships ; though 
it was probably too late then, anyhow, for even un- 
der the simpler conditions of that day such a fleet 
could not have been built and put into first-class or- 
der in less than a couple of years. Bitterly did the 
nation pay for its want of foresight and forethought. 
Our cruisers won a number of striking victories, 
heartening and giving hope to the nation in the face 
of disaster; but they were powerless to do material 
harm to the gigantic naval strength of Great Britain. 
Efforts were made to increase our little Navy, but 
in the face of a hostile enemy already possessing 
command of the seas this was impossible. Two or 
three small cruisers were built; but practically al- 
most all the fighting on the ocean was done by the 
handful of frigates and sloops which we possessed 
when the war broke out. Not a battleship was able 
to put to sea until after peace was restored. Mean- 
while our coast was blockaded from one end to the 
other and was harried at will by the hostile squad- 
rons. Our capital city was burned, and the cease- 
less pressure of the blockade produced such suffer- 
ing and irritation as nearly to bring about a civil 
war among ourselves. If in the first decade of the 
present century the American people and their rulers 
had possessed the wisdom to provide an efficient fleet 
of powerful battleships there would probably have 
been no War of 1812 ; and even if war had come, the 
immense loss to, and destruction of, trade and com- 
merce by the blockade would have been prevented. 



A Forgotten Maxim 279 

Merely from the monetary standpoint the saving 
would have been incalculable; and yet this would 
have been the smallest part of the gain. 

It can therefore be taken for granted that there 
must be adequate preparation for conflict, if conflict 
is not to mean disaster. Furthermore, this prepara- 
tion must take the shape of an efficient fighting navy. 
We have no foe able to conquer or overrun our ter- 
ritory. Our small army should always be kept in 
first-class condition, and every attention should be 
paid to the National Guard ; but neither on the North 
nor the South have we neighbors capable of menac- 
ing us with invasion or long resisting a serious effort 
on our part to invade them. The enemies we may 
have to face will come from over the sea ; they may 
come from Europe, or they may come from Asia. 
Events move fast in the West; but this generation 
has been forced to see that they move even faster in 
the oldest East. Our interests are as great in the 
Pacific as in the Atlantic, in the Hawaiian Islands 
as in the West Indies. Merely for the protection 
of our own shores we need a great navy; and what 
is more, we need it to protect our interests in the 
islands from which it is possible to command our 
shores and to protect our commerce on the high seas. 

In building this navy, we must remember two 
things : First, that our ships and guns should be the 
very best of their kind ; and second, that no matter 
how good they are, they will be useless unless the 
man in the conning-tower and the man behind the 
gun are also the best of their kind. It is mere folly 



28o A Forgotten Maxim 

to send men to perish because they have arms with 
which they can not win. With poor ships, were an 
Admiral Nelson and Farragut rolled in one, he might 
be beaten by any first-class fleet ; and he surely would 
be beaten if his opponents were in any degree his 
equals in skill and courage; but without this skill 
and courage no perfection of material can avail, and 
with them very grave shortcomings in equipment 
may be overcome. The men who command our 
ships must have as perfect weapons ready to their 
hands as can be found in the civilized world, and 
they must be trained to the highest point in using 
them. They must have skill in handling the ships, 
skill in tactics, skill in strateg}^ for ignorant courage 
can not avail ; but without courage neither will skill 
avail. They must have in them the dogged ability 
to bear punishment, the power and desire to inflict 
it, the daring, the resolution, the willingness to take 
risks and incur responsibility which have been pos- 
sessed by the great captains of all ages, and without 
which no man can ever hope to stand in the front 
rank of fighting men. 

Tame submission to foreign aggression of any 
kind is a mean and unworthy thing; but it is even 
meaner and more unworthy to bluster first, and then 
either submit or else refuse to make those prepara- 
tions which can alone obviate the necessity for sub- 
mission. I believe with all my heart in the Monroe 
Doctrine, and I believe also that the great mass of 
the American people are loyal to it; but it is worse 
than idle to announce our adherence to this doctrine 



A Forgotten Maxim 281 

and yet to decline to take measures to show that 
ours is not mere lip loyalty. We had far better 
submit to interference by foreign powers with the 
affairs of this continent than to announce that we 
will not tolerate such interference, and yet refuse to 
make ready the means by which alone we can prevent 
it. In public as in private life, a bold front tends 
to ensure peace and not strife. If we possess a for- 
midable navy, small is the chance indeed that we 
shall ever be dragged into a war to uphold the Mon- 
roe -Doctrine. If we do not possess such a navy, 
war may be forced on us at any time. 

It is certain, then, that we need a first-class navy. 
It is equally certain that this should not be merely a 
navy for defence. Our chief harbors should, of 
course, be fortified and put in condition to resist the 
attack of an enemy's fleet; and one of our prime 
needs is an ample force of torpedo-boats to use pri- 
marily for coast defence. But in war the mere de- 
fensive never pays, and can never result in anything 
but disaster. It is not enough to parry a blow. 
The surest way to prevent its repetition is to return 
it. No master of the prize ring ever fought his way 
to supremacy by mere dexterity in avoiding punish- 
ment. He had to win by inflicting punishment. If 
the enemy is given the choice of time and place to 
attack, sooner or later he will do irreparable damage, 
and if he is at any point beaten back, why, after all, 
it is merely a repulse, and there are no means of fol- 
lowing it up and making it a rout. We can not rely 
upon coast protection alone. Forts and heavy land 



282 A Forgotten Maxim 

guns and torpedo-boats are indispensable, and the 
last, on occasion, may be used for offensive purposes 
also. But in the present state of naval and mihtary 
knowledge we must rely mainly, as all great nations 
always have relied, on the battleship, the fighting 
ship of the line. Gunboats and light cruisers serve 
an excellent purpose, and we could not do without 
them. In time of peace they are the police of the 
seas ; in time of war they would do some harrying of 
commerce, and a great deal of scouting and skirmish- 
ing ; but our main reliance must be on the great arm- 
ored battleships with their heavy guns and shot- 
proof vitals. In the last resort we must trust to the 
ships whose business it is to fight and not to run, 
and who can themselves go to sea and strike at the 
enemy when they choose, instead of waiting peace- 
fully to receive his blow when and where he deems 
it best to deliver it. If in the event of war our fleet 
of battleships can destroy the hostile fleet, then our 
coasts are safe from the menace of serious attack; 
even a fight that ruined our fleet would probably 
so shatter the hostile fleet as to do away with all 
chance of invasion; but if we have no fleet where- 
with to meet the enemy on the high seas, or to antici- 
pate his stroke by our own, then every city within 
reach of the tides must spend men and money in 
preparation for an attack that may not come, but 
which would cause crushing and irredeemable disas- 
ter if it did come. 

Still more is it necessary to have a fleet of great 
battleships if we intend to live up to the Monroe 



A Forgotten Maxim 283 

Doctrine, and to insist upon its observance in the 
two Americas and the islands on either side of 
them. If a foreign power, whether in Europe or 
Asia, should determine to assert its position in those 
lands wherein we feel that our influence should 
be supreme, there is but one way in which we can 
effectively interfere. Diplomacy is utterly useless 
where there is no force behind it ; the diplomat is the 
servant, not the master, of the soldier. The pros- 
perity of peace, commercial and material prosperity, 
gives no weight whatever when the clash of arms 
comes. Even great naked strength is useless if there 
is no immediate means through which that strength 
can manifest itself. If we mean to protect the people 
of the lands who look to us for protection from 
tyranny and aggression; if we mean to uphold our 
interests in the teeth of the formidable Old-World 
powers, we can only do it by being ready at any 
time, if the provocation is sufficient, to meet them 
on the seas, where the battle for supremacy must 
be fought. Unless we are prepared so to meet 
them, let us abandon all talk of devotion to the 
Monroe Doctrine or to the honor of the American 
name. 

This nation can not stand still if it is to retain 
its self-respect, and to keep undimmed the honor- 
able traditions inherited from the men who with the 
sword founded it and by the sword preserved it. 
We ask that the work of upbuilding the Navy, and 
of putting the United States where it should be 
put among maritime powers, go forward without 



284 A Forgotten Maxim 

a break. We ask this not in the interest of war, 
but in the interest of peace. No nation should ever 
wage war wantonly, but no nation should ever 
avoid it at the cost of the loss of national honor. 
A nation should never fight unless forced to; but 
it should always be ready to fight. The mere fact 
that it is ready will generally spare it the necessity 
of fighting. If this country now had a fleet of 
twenty battleships their existence would make it 
all the more likely that we should not have war. It 
is very important that we should, as a race, keep the 
virile fighting qualities and should be ready to use 
them at need; but it is not at all important to use 
them unless there is need. One of the surest ways 
to attain these qualities is to keep our Navy in first- 
class trim. There never is, and never has been, 
on our part a desire to use a weapon because of its 
being well-tempered. There is not the least danger 
that the possession of a good navy will render this 
country overbearing toward its neighbors. The 
direct contrary is the truth. 

An unmanly desire to avoid a quarrel is often 
the surest way to precipitate one ; and utter unreadi- 
ness to fight is even surer. If at the time of our 
trouble with Chili, six years ago, we had not al- 
ready possessed the nucleus of the new navy we 
should almost certainly have been forced into fight- 
ing, and even as it was trouble was only averted 
because of the resolute stand then taken by the 
President and by the officers of the Navy who were 
on the spot. If at that time the Chilians had been 



A Forgotten Maxim 285 

able to get ready the battleship which was building 
for them, a war would almost certainly have fol- 
lowed, for we had no battleship to put against it. 

If in the future we have war, it will almost cer- 
tainly come because of some action, or lack of 
action, on our part in the way of refusing to accept 
responsibilities at the proper time, or failing to 
prepare for war when war does not threaten. An 
ignoble peace is even worse than an unsuccessful 
war; but an unsuccessful war would leave behind it 
a legacy of bitter memories which would hurt our 
national development for a generation to come. It 
IS true that no nation could actually conquer us, 
owing to our isolated position ; but we would be seri- 
ously harmed, even materially, by disasters that 
stopped far short of conquest ; and in these matters, 
which are far more important than things material, 
we could readily be damaged beyond repair. No 
material loss can begin to compensate for the loss 
of national self-respect. The damage to our com- 
mercial interests by the destruction of one of our 
coast cities would be as nothing compared to the 
humiliation which would be felt by every American 
worthy of the name if we had to submit to such an 
injury without amply avenging it. It has been 
finely said that "a gentleman is one who is willing 
to lay down his life for little things"; that is for 
those things which seem little to the man who cares 
only whether shares rise or fall in value, and to the 
timid doctrinaire who preaches timid peace from 
his cloistered study. 



286 A Forgotten Maxim 

Much of that which is best and highest in national 
character is made up of glorious memories and tra- 
ditions. The fight well fought, the life honorably 
lived, the death bravely met — those count for more 
in building a high and fine type of temper in a na- 
tion than any possible success in the stock market, 
than any possible prosperity in commerce or manu- 
factures. A rich banker may be a valuable and use- 
ful citizen, but not a thousand rich bankers can 
leave to the country such a heritage as Farragut 
left, when, lashed in the rigging of the Hartford, 
he forged past the forts and over the unseen death 
below, to try his wooden stem against the ironclad 
hull of the great Confederate ram. The people of 
some given section of our country may be better off 
because a shrewd and wealthy man has built up 
therein a great manufacturing business, or has ex- 
tended a line of railroad past its doors; but the 
whole nation is better, the whole nation is braver, 
because Gushing pushed his little torpedo-boat 
through the darkness to sink beside the sinking 
Albemarle. 

Every feat of heroism makes us forever indebted 
to the man who performed it. All daring and 
courage, all iron endurance of misfortune, all de- 
votion to the ideal of honor and the glory of the 
flag, make for a finer and nobler type of manhood. 
It is not only those who do and dare and endure that 
are benefited ; but also the countless thousands who 
are not themselves called upon to face the peril, to 
show the strength, or to win the reward. All of us 



A Forgotten Maxim 287 

lift our heads higher l^ecause those of our country- 
men whose trade it is to meet danger have met it 
well and bravely. All of us are poorer for e\'ery 
base or ignoble deed done by an American, for every 
instance of selfishness or weakness or folly on the 
part of the people as a whole. We are all worse off 
when any of us fails at any point in his duty toward 
the State in time of peace, or his duty toward the 
State in time of war. If ever we had to meet defeat 
at the hands of a foreign foe, or had to submit 
tamely to wrong or insult, every man among us 
worthy of the name of American would feel dis- 
honored and debased. On the other hand, the 
memory of every triumph won by Americans, by 
just so much helps to make each American nobler 
and better. Every man among us is so much the 
better prepared for the duties of citizenship because 
of the perils over which, in the past, the nation has 
triumphed; because of the blood and sweat and 
tears, the labor and the anguish, through which, in 
the days that have gone, our forefathers moved on 
to triumph. There are higher things in this life than 
the soft and easy enjoyment of material comfort. 
It is through strife, or the readiness for strife, that 
a nation must win greatness. We ask for a great 
navy, partly because we think that the possession 
of such a navy is the surest guaranty of peace, and 
partly because we feel that no national life is wortii 
having if the nation is not willing, when the need 
shall arise, to stake everything on the supreme ar- 
bitrament of war, and to pour out its blood, its 



2 88 A Forgotten Maxim 

treasure, and its tears like water, rather than submit 
to the loss of honor and renown. 

In closing, let me repeat that we ask for a great 
navy, we ask for an armament fit for the nation's 
needs, not primarily to fight, but to avert fighting. 
Preparedness deters the foe and maintains right 
by the show of ready might without the use of 
violence. Peace, like freedom, is not a gift that 
tarries long in the hands of cowards, or of those too 
feeble or too short-sighted to deserve it; and we 
ask to be given the means to ensure that honorable 
peace which alone is worth having. 



VI 

NATIONAL LIFE AND CHARACTER* 

IN "National Life and Character; a Forecast" Mr. 
Charles H. Pearson, late fellow of Oriel College, 
Oxford, and sometime Minister of Education in 
Victoria, has produced one of the most notable 
books of the end of the century. Mr. Pearson is 
not always quite so careful as he might be about his 
facts ; many of the conclusions he draws from them 
seem somewhat strained; and with much of his 
forecast most of us would radically disagree. Nev- 
ertheless, no one can read this book without feeling 
his thinking powers greatly stimulated; without 
being forced to ponder problems of which he was 
previously wholly igiiorant, or which he but half 
understood; and without realizing that he is dealing 
with the work of a man of lofty thought and of deep 
and philosophic insight into the world-forces of the 
present. 

Mr. Pearson belongs to the melancholy or pessi- 
mist school, which has become so prominent in Eng- 
land during the last two or three decades, and which 
has been represented there for half a century. In 
fact, the note of despondency seems to be the domi- 
nant note among Englishmen of high cultivation at 

* The Sewanee Review, August, 1894. 

(289) 
^3 Vol. I. 



290 National Life and Character. 

the present time. It is as marked among their 
statesmen and publicists as among their men of let- 
ters, Mr. Balfour being particularly happy in his ca- 
pacity to express in good English, and with much 
genuine elevation of thought, a profound disbelief 
in nineteenth century progress, and an equally pro- 
found distrust of the future toward which we are all 
traveling. 

For much of this pessimism and for many of the 
prophecies which it evokes, there is no excuse what- 
soever. There may possibly be good foundation for 
the pessimism as to the future shown by men like 
Mr. Pearson ; but hitherto the writers of the stamp 
of the late "Cassandra" Greg, who have been pessi- 
mistic about the present, have merely betrayed their 
own weakness or their own incapacity to judge con- 
temporary persons and events. The weakling, the 
man who can not struggle with his fellow-men and 
with the conditions that surround him, is very apt 
to think these men and these conditions bad ; and if 
he has the gift of writing, he puts these thoughts 
down at some length on paper. Very strong men, 
moreover, if of morose and dyspeptic temper, are 
apt to rail at the present, and to praise the past sim- 
ply because they do not live in it. To any man 
who will consider the subject from a scientific point 
of view, with a desire to get at the truth, it is need- 
less to insist on the fact that at no period of the 
world's history has there been so much happiness 
generally diffused among mankind as now. 

At no period of the world's history has life been 



National Life and Character 291 

so full of interest and of possibilities of excitement 
and enjoyment as for us who live in the latter half 
of the nineteenth century. This is not only true as 
far as the working classes are concerned, but it is 
especially true as regards the men of means, and 
above all of those men of means who also possess 
brains and ambition. Never before in the world's 
history have there been such opportunities thrown 
open to men, in the way of building new common- 
wealths, exploring new countries, conquering king- 
doms, and trying to adapt the governmental policy 
of old nations to new and strange conditions. The 
half-century which is now closing has held out 
to the people who have dwelled therein some of the 
great prizes of history. Abraham Lincoln and 
Prince Bismarck have taken their places among the 
world's worthies. Mighty masters of war have 
arisen in America, in Germany, in Russia ; Lee and 
Grant, Jackson and Farragut, Moltke, Skobeleff. and 
the Red Prince. The work of the chiefs of mechan- 
ical and electrical invention has never been equaled 
before, save perhaps by w^hat was done in the first 
half of this same century. Never before have there 
been so many opportunities for commonwealth build- 
ers; new States have been pitched on the banks of 
the Saskatchewan; the Columbia, the Missouri, and 
the Colorado, on the seacoast of Australia, and in 
the interior of Central Africa. Vast regions have 
been won by the sword. Burmah and Turkestan. 
Egypt and Matabeleland, have rewarded the pn^wcss 
of Enghsh and Russian conquerors, exactly as. when 



292 National Life and Character 

the glory of Rome was at its height, remote Medi- 
terranean provinces furnished triumphs to the great 
miHtary leaders of the Eternal City. English ad- 
ministrators govern subject empires larger than 
those conquered by Alexander. In letters no name 
has been produced that will stand with the first 
half-dozen of all literature, but there have been very 
many borne by men whose effect upon the literatures 
of their own countries has been profound, and whose 
works will last as long as the works of any men 
written in the same tongues. In science even more 
has been done; Darwin has fairly revolutionized 
thought; and many others stand but a step below 
him. 

All this means only that the opportunities have 
been exceptionally great for the men of exception- 
ally great powers ; but they have also been great for 
the men of ordinary powers. The workingman is, 
on the whole, better fed, better clothed, better 
housed, and provided with greater opportunities for 
pleasure and for mental and spiritual improvement 
than ever before. The man with ability enough to 
become a lawmaker has the fearful joy of grappling 
with problems as important as any the administra- 
tors and legislators of the past had to face. The 
ordinary man of adventurous tastes and a desire to 
get all out of life that can be gotten, is beyond meas- 
ure better off than were his forefathers of one, two, 
or three centuries back. He can travel round the 
world ; he can dwell in anj^- country he wishes ; he 
can explore strange regions; he can spend years by 



National Life and Character 293 

himself in the wilderness, hunting great game; he 
can take part in a campaign here and there. Whither- 
soever his tastes lead him, he finds that he has far 
greater capacity conferred upon him by the condi- 
tions of nineteenth-century civilization to do some- 
thing of note than ever a man of his kind had before. 
If he is observant, he notes all around him the play 
of vaster forces than have ever before been exerted, 
working, half blindly, half under control, to bring 
about immeasurable results. He sees going on be- 
fore his eyes a great transfer of population and civ- 
ilization, which is making America north of the Rio 
Grande, and Australia, English-speaking continents : 
which has filled Central and South America with 
States of uncertain possibilities; which is creating 
for the first time a huge Aryan nation across the 
entire north of Asia, and which is working changes 
in Africa infinitely surpassing in importance all those 
that have ever taken place there since the days when 
the Bantu peoples first built their beehive-huts on the 
banks of the Congo and the Zambesi. Our century 
has teemed with life and interest. 

Yet this is the very century at which Carlyle 
railed ; and it is strange to think that he could speak 
of the men at that very moment engaged in doins 
such deeds, as belonging to a worn-out age. His 
vision was clear to see the importance and the tnie 
bearing of England's civil war of tlie seventeenth 
century, and yet he remained mole-blind to the 
vaster and more important civil war waged be- 
fore his very eyes in nineteenth-century America. 



294 National Life and Character 

The heroism of Naseby and Worcester and Minden 
hid from him the heroism of Balaklava and Inker- 
mann, of Lucknow and Delhi. He could appreciate 
at their worth the campaigns of the Seven Years' 
War, and yet could hardly understand those waged 
between the armies of the Potomac and of North- 
ern Virginia. He was fairly inspired by the fury 
and agony and terror of _the struggle at Kunners- 
dorf, and yet could not appreciate the immensely 
greater importance of the death-wrestle that reeled 
round Gettysburg. His eyes were so dazzled by the 
great dramas of the past that he could not see the 
even greater drama of the present. It is but the 
bare truth to say that never have the rewards been 
greater, never has there been more chance for doing 
work of great and lasting value, than this last half 
of the nineteenth century has offered alike to states- 
man and soldier, to explorer and commonwealth- 
builder, to the captain of industry, to the man of let- 
ters, and to the man of science. Never has life been 
more interesting to each to take part in. Never has 
there been a greater output of good work done both 
by the few and by the many. 

Nevertheless, signs do not fail that we are on the 
eve of great changes, and that in the next century 
we shall see the conditions of our lives, national and 
individual, modified after a sweeping and radical 
fashion. Many of the forces that make for national 
greatness and for individual happiness in the nine- 
teenth century will be absent entirely, or will act 
with greatly diminished strength, in the twentieth. 



National Life and Character 295 

Many of the forces that now make for evil will by 
that time have gained greatly in volume and power. 
It is foolish to look at the future with blind and 
careless optimism ; quite as foolish as to gaze at it 
only through the dun-colored mists that surround 
the preachers of pessimism. It is always best to 
look at facts squarely in the face, without blinking 
them, and to remember that, as has been well said, 
in the long run even the most uncomfortable truth 
is a safer companion than the pleasantest falsehood. 

Whether the future holds good or evil for us does 
not, it is true, alter our duty in the present. We 
must stand up valiantly in the fight for righteous- 
ness and wisdom as we see them, and must let the 
event turn out as it may. Nevertheless, even though 
there is little use in pondering over the future, most 
men of intelligence do ponder over it at times, and 
if we think of it at all, it is well to think clearly. 

Mr. Pearson writes a forecast of what he believes 
probably will, or at least very possibly may happen 
in the development of national life and character 
during the era upon which we are now entering. 
He is a man who has had exceptional advantages for 
his work ; he has studied deeply and traveled widely ; 
he has been a diligent reader of books and a keen 
observer of men. To a careful training in one of the 
oldest of the world's universities he has added long 
experience as an executive ofiicer in one of the 
world's youngest commonwealths. He writes with 
power and charm. His book is interesting in man- 
ner, and is still more interesting in matter, for he 



296 National Life and Character 

has thought deeply and faithfully over subjects 01 
immense importance to the future of all the human 
race. He possesses a mind of marked originality. 
Moreover, he always faithfully tries to see facts as 
they actually are. He is, it seems to me, unduly 
pessimistic ; but he is not pessimistic of set purpose, 
nor does he adopt pessimism as a cult. He tries 
hard, and often successfully, to make himself see 
and to make himself state forces that are working for 
good. We may or may not differ from him, but it be- 
hooves us, if we do, to state our positions guard- 
edly; for we are dealing with a man who has dis- 
played much research in getting at his facts and 
much honesty in arriving at his rather melancholy 
conclusions. 

The introduction of Mr. Pearson's book is as 
readable as the chapters that follow, and may best 
be considered in connection with the first of these 
chapters, which is entitled "The Unchangeable Lim- 
its of the Higher Races." I am almost tempted to 
call this the most interesting of the six chapters of 
the book, and yet one can hardly do so when ab- 
sorbed in reading any one of the other five. Mr. 
Pearson sees wdiat ought to be evident to every one, 
but apparently is not, that what he calls the "higher 
races," that is, the races that for the last twenty-five 
hundred years (but, it must be remembered, only 
during the last twenty-five hundred years) have led 
the world, can prosper only under conditions of soil 
and climate analogous to those obtaining in their 
old European homes. Speaking roughly, this means 



National Life and Character 297 

that they can prosper only in the temperate zones, 
north and south. 

Four hundred years ago the temperate zones were 
very thinly peopled indeed, while the tropical and 
sub-tropical regions were already densely populated. 
The great feature in the world's history for the last 
four centuries has been the peopling of these vast, 
scantily inhabited regions by men of the European 
stocks; notably by men speaking English, but also 
by men speaking Russian and Spanish. During 
the same centuries these European peoples have for 
the first time acquired an enormous ascendency over 
all other races. Once before, during the days of 
the Greco-Macedonian and Roman supremacy. Eu- 
ropean peoples possessed a somewhat similar su- 
premacy ; but it was not nearly as great, for at that 
period America and Australia were unknown, Africa 
south of the Sahara was absolutely unaffected by 
either Roman or Greek, and all but an insignifi- 
cant portion of Asia was not only without the pale 
of European influence, but held within itself im- 
mense powers of menace to Europe, and contained 
otd and peculiar civilizations, still flourishing in their 
prime. All this has now been changed. Great En- 
glish-speaking nations have sprung up in .'\merica 
north of the Rio Grande, and are springing up in 
Australia. The Russians, by a movement which has 
not yet fired the popular imagination, but which 
all thinking men recognize as of incalculable im- 
portance, are building a vast State in northern Asia. 
stretching from the Yellow Sea to the Ural Moun- 



298 National Life and Character 

tains. Tropical America is parceled out among 
States partly of European blood, and mainly Euro- 
pean in thought, speech and religion ; while tropical 
Asia and Africa have been divided among Euro- 
pean powers, and are held in more or less complete 
subjection by their military and civil agents. It is 
no wonder that men who are content to look at 
things superficially, and who think that the ten- 
dencies that have triumphed during the last two 
centuries are as immutable in their workings as 
great natural laws, should speak as if it were a mere 
question of time when the civilized peoples should 
overrun and occupy the entire world, exactly as they 
now do Europe and North America. 

Mr. Pearson points out with great clearness the 
groundlessness of this belief. He deserves especial 
praise for discriminating between the importance 
of ethnic, and of merely political, conquests. The 
conquest by one country of another populous coun- 
try always attracts great attention at the time, and 
has wide momentary effects ; but it is of insignificant 
importance when compared with the kind of armed 
settlement which causes new nations of an old stock 
to spring up in new countries. The campaigns car- 
ried on by the lieutenants of Justinian against Goth 
and Vandal, Bulgarian and Persian, seemed in the 
eyes of civilized Europe at that time of incalculably 
greater moment than the squalid warfare being 
waged in England between the descendants of Low 
Dutch sea-thieves and the aboriginal British. Yet, 
in reality, it was of hardly any consequence in his- 



National Life and Charactei 



299 



tory whether BeHsariiis did or did not succeed in 
overthrowing the Ostrogoth merely to make room 
for the Lombard, or whether the Vandal did or 
did not succumb to the Roman instead of succuml> 
ing to the Saracen a couple of centuries later; while 
it was of the most vital consequence to the whole 
future of the world that the English should supplant 
the Welsh as masters of Britain. 

Again, in our own day, the histories written of 
Great Britain during the last century teem with her 
dealings with India, while Australia plays a %ery 
insignificant part indeed; yet, from the standpoint 
of the ages, peopling of the great island-continent 
with men of the English stock is a thousand-fold 
more important than the holding Hindoostan for a 
few centuries. 

Mr. Pearson understands and brings out clearly 

that in the long run a conquest must fail when it 

means merely the erection of an insignificant go\- 

erning caste. He show^s clearly that the men of our 

stock do not prosper in tropical countries. In the 

New World they leave a thin strain of their bKx)d 

among and impose their laws, language, and forms 

of government on the aboriginal races, whicli then 

develop on new and dimly drawn lines. In the Old 

World they fail to do even this. In Asia they may 

leave a few tens of thousands, or possibly hundreds 

of thousands, of Eurasians to form an additional 

caste in a caste-ridden community. In trojjical 

Africa they may leave here and there a mulatto 

tribe like the Griquas. But it certainly has not yet 



300 National Life and Character 

been proved that the European can live and propa- 
gate permanently in the hot regions of India and 
Africa, and Mr. Pearson is right in anticipating for 
the whites who have conquered these tropical and 
sub-tropical regions of the Old World the same fate 
which befell the Greek kingdoms in Bactria and the 
Chersonese. The Greek rulers of Bactria were ulti- 
mately absorbed and vanished, as probably the En- 
glish rulers of India will some day in the future — 
for the good of mankind, we sincerely hope and 
believe the very remote future — themselves be ab- 
sorbed and vanish. In Africa south of the Zam- 
besi (and possibly here and there on high plateaus 
north of it), there may remain white States, al- 
though even these States will surely contain a large 
colored population, always threatening to swamp 
the whites ; but in tropical Africa generally, it does 
not seem possible that any white State can ever be 
built up. Doubtless for many centuries European 
adventurers and Arab raiders will rule over huge 
territories in the country south of the Soudan and 
north of the Tropic of Capricorn, and the whole 
structure, not only social, but physical, of the negro 
and the negroid peoples will be profoundly changed 
by their influence and by the influence of the half- 
caste descendants of these European and Asiatic 
soldiers of fortune and industry. But it is hardly 
possible to conceive that the peoples of Africa, how- 
ever ultimately changed, will be anything but negroid 
in type of body and mind. It is probable that the 
change will be in the direction of turning them into 



National Life and Character 301 

tribes like those of the Soudan, with a similar re- 
ligion and morality. It is almost impossible that 
they will not in the end succeed in throwing off the 
yoke of the European outsiders, though this end may 
be, and we hope will be, many centuries distant. 
In America, most of the West Indies are becoming 
negro islands. The Spaniard, however, because of 
the ease with which he drops to a lower ethnic level, 
exerts a much more permanent influence than the 
Englishman upon tropic aboriginal races ; and the 
tropical lands which the Spaniards and Portuguese 
once held, now contain, and always will contain, 
races which, though different from the Aryan of 
the Temperate Zone, yet bridge the gulf between him 
and the black, red, and yellow peoples who have 
dwelt from time immemorial on both sides of the 
equator. 

Taking all this into consideration, therefore, it 
is most likely that a portion of Mr. Pearson's fore- 
cast, as regards the people of the tropic zones, will 
be justified by events. It is impossible for the dom- 
inant races of the temperate zones ever bodily to dis- 
place the peoples of the tropics. It is highly prob- 
able that these people will cast off the yoke of their 
European conquerors sooner or later, and wdl be- 
come independent nations once more; though it is 
also possible that the modern conditions of easy 
travel may permit the permanent rule in the tropics 
of a vigorous northern race, renewed by a c.MnpIcte 
change every generation. 

Mr. Pearson's further proposition is that \\h'-c 



302 National Life and Character 

black, red, and yellow nations, when thus freed, 
will threaten the dominance of the higher peoples, 
possibly by military, certainly by industrial, rivalry, 
and that the mere knowledge of the equality of these 
stocks will cow and dispirit the higher races. 

This part of his argument is open to very serious 
objections. In the first place, Mr. Pearson entirely 
fails to take into account the difference in character 
among the nationalities produced in the tropics as 
the result of European conquest. In Asia, doubt- 
less, the old races now submerged by European 
predominance will reappear, profoundly changed in 
themselves, and in their relations to one another, 
but as un-European as ever, and not appreciably 
affected by any intermixture of European blood. 
In Africa, the native States will probably range 
somewhere between the Portuguese half-caste and 
quarter-caste communities now existing on certain 
of the tropic coasts, and pastoral or agricultural 
communities, with a Mohammedan religious cult 
and Asiatic type of government, produced by the 
infusion of a conquering Semitic or hamitic caste on 
a conquered negro people. There may be a dominant 
caste of European blood in some of these States, 
but that is all. In tropical America, the change has 
already taken place. The States that there exist 
will not materially alter their form. It is possible 
that here and there populations of Chinese, pure 
or half-caste, or even of coolies, may spring up ; but 
taken as a whole, these States will be in the future 
what they are now, that is, they will be by blood 



National Life and Character 303 

partly white, but chiefly Indian or negro, with their 
language, law, religion, Hterature, and govemniental 
systems approaching those of Europe and North 
America. 

Suppose that what ATr. Pearson foresees comes to 
pass, and that the black and yellow races of the 
world attain the same independence already achieved 
by the mongrel reddish race. Mr. Pearson thinks 
that this will expose us to two dangers. The first 
is that of actual physical distress caused by the com- 
petition of the teeming myriads of the tropics, or 
perhaps by their invasion of the temperate zones. 
Mr. Pearson himself does not feel any verj' great 
anxiety about this invasion assuming a military 
type, and I think that even the fear he does express 
is unwarranted by the facts. He is immensely im- 
pressed by the teeming population of China. He 
thinks that the Chinese will some day constitute the 
dominant portion of the population, both politically 
and numerically, in the East Indies, New Guinea, 
and Farther India. In this he is probably quite 
right; but such a change would merely mean the 
destruction or submersion of Malay, Dyak. and Pa- 
puan and would be of hardly any real consequence to 
the white man. He further thinks that the Chinese 
may jeopardize Russia in Asia. Here I am inclined 
to think he is wrong. As far as it is p<xssible to 
judge in the absence of statistics, the Chinaman 
at present is not increasing relatively as fast as the 
Slav and the Anglo-Saxon. Half a century or so 
more will put both of them within mcnsunhle dis- 



304 National Life and Character 

tance of equality with him, even in point of num- 
bers. The movement of population in China is to- 
ward the south, not the north ; the menace is real for 
the English and French protectorates in the south; 
in the north the difficulty hitherto has been to keep 
Russian settlers from crossing the Chinese frontier. 
When the great Trans-Siberian railroad is built, and 
when a few millions more of Russian settlers stretch 
from the Volga to the valley of the Amoor, the dan- 
ger of a military advance by the Chinese against 
Asiatic Russia will be entirely over, even granting 
that it now exists. The Chinaman never has been, 
and probably never will be, such a fighter as Turk 
or Tartar, and he would have to possess an abso- 
lutely overwhelming superiority of numbers to give 
him a chance in a war of aggression against a 
powerful military race. As yet, he has made no ad- 
vance whatever toward developing an army capa- 
ble of offensive work against European foes. In 
China there are no roads ; the military profession is 
looked down on; Chinese troops would be for- 
midable only under a European leader, and a Eu- 
ropean leader would be employed only from dire 
necessity; that is to repel, not to undertake, an in- 
vasion. Moreover, China is merely an aggregate of 
provinces with a central knot at Pekin; and Pekin 
could be taken at any time by a small trained army. 
China will not m.enace Siberia until after under- 
going some stupendous and undreamed-of internal 
revolution. It is scarcely within the bounds of pos- 
sibility to conceive of the Chinaman expelling the 



National Life and Character 305 

European settler from lands in which that settler 
represents the bulk of a fairly thick population, not 
merely a small intrusive caste. It is. of course, al- 
ways possible that in the far-distant future (though 
there is no sign of it now) China may travel on the 
path of Japan, may change her policy, may develop 
fleets and armies ; but if she does do this, there is 
no reason why this fact should stunt and dwarf the 
people of the higher races. In Elizabeth's day the 
Turkish fleets and armies stood toward those of Eu- 
ropean powers in a far higher position than those of 
China, or of the tropics generally, can ever hope to 
stand in relation to the peoples of the temperate 
zones ; and yet this did not hinder the Elizal)ethan 
Age from being one of great note both in the field 
of thought and in the field of action. 

The anticipation of what might happen if India 
became solidified seems even more ill-founded. Plere 
Mr. Pearson's position is that the very continuance 
of European rule, doing away with war and famine, 
produces an increase of population and a solidity 
of the country, which will enable the people to over- 
throw that European nile. He assumes that the 
solidified and populous country will continue to re- 
main such after the overflow of the Europeans, 
and will be capable of deeds of aggression : but. of 
course, such an assumption is contrary to all proba- 
bilities. Once the European rule was removed, 
famine and internecine war would again Ix^ccnne 
chronic, and India would sink back to her fanner 
place. Moreover, the long continuance of T^ritish 



3o6 National Life and Character 

rule undoubtedly weakens the warHke fibre of the 
natives, and makes the usurer rather than the soldier 
the dominant type. 

The danger to which Mr. Pearson alludes, that 
even the negro peoples may in time become vast mili- 
tary powers, constituting a menace to Europe, really 
seems to belong to a period so remote that every 
condition will have changed to a degree rendering it 
impossible for us to make any estimate in reference 
thereto. By that time the descendant of the negro 
may be as intellectual as the Athenian. Even proph- 
ecy must not look too many thousand years ahead. 
It is perfectly possible that European settlements in 
Africa will be swamped some time by the rising of 
natives who outnumber them a hundred or a thou- 
sand to one, but it is not possible that the negroes 
will form a military menace to the people of the 
north, at least for a space of time longer than that 
which now separates us from the men of the River 
Drift. The negroid peoples, the so*-called "hamitic," 
and bastard Semitic, races of eastern middle Africa 
are formidable fighters ; but their strength is not fit 
for any such herculean tasks. 

There is much more reason to fear the industrial 
competition of these races ; but even this will be less 
formidable as the power of the State increases and 
especially as the democratic idea obtains more and 
more currency. The Russians are not democratic at 
all, but the State is very powerful with them; and 
therefore they keep the Chinese out of their Siberian 
provinces, which are being rapidly filled up with a 



National Life and Cliaractcr 307 

population mainly Slav, the remainder of which is 
being Slavicized. From the United States and Aus- 
tralia the Chinaman is kept out because the democ- 
racy, with much clearness of vision, has seen that his 
presence is ruinous to the white race. 

Nineteenth-century democracy needs no more 
complete vindication for its existence than the fact 
that it has kept for the white race the best portions 
of the New Worlds' surface, temperate America and 
Australia. Had these regions been under aristo- 
cratic governments, Chinese immigration would 
have been encouraged precisely as the slave-trade 
is encouraged of necessity by any slave-holding oli- 
garchy, and the result would in a few generations 
have been even more fatal to the white race; but 
the democracy, with the clear instinct of race selfish- 
ness, saw the race foe, and kept out the dangerous 
alien. The presence of the negro in our Southern 
States is a legacy from the time when we were ruled 
by a trans-oceanic aristocracy. The whole civiliza- 
tion of the future owes a debt of gratitude greater 
than can be expressed in words to that democratic 
policy which has kept the temperate zones of the 
new and the newest worlds a heritage for the white 
people. 

As for the industrial competition, the Chinaman 
and the Hindoo may drive certain kinds of white 
traders from the tropics ; but more than this they can 
not do. They can never change the status of the 
white laborer in his own home, for the latter can al- 
ways protect himself, and as soon as he is seriously 



3o8 National Life and Character 

menaced, always will protect himself, by protective 
tariffs and stringent immigration laws. 

Mr. Pearson fears that when once the tropic races 
are independent, the white peoples will be humiHated 
and will lose heart ; but this does not seem inevitable, 
and indeed seems very improbable. If the English- 
man should lose his control over South Africa and 
India, it might indeed be a serious blow to the En- 
glishman of Britain ; though it may^ be well to re- 
member that the generation of Englishmen which 
grew up immediately after England had lost Amer- 
ica, accomplished feats in arms, letters, and science 
such as, on the whole, no other English generation 
ever accomplished. Even granting that Britain were 
to suffer as Mr. Pearson thinks she would, the enor- 
mous majority of the English-speaking peoples, those 
whose homes are in America and Australia, would 
be absolutely unaffected; and Continental Europe 
would be little more affected than it was when the 
Portuguese and Dutch successively saw their African 
and Indian empires diminish. France has not been 
affected by the expulsion of the French from Hayti ; 
nor have the freed negroes of Hayti been capable of 
the smallest aggressive movement. No American 
or Australian cares in the least that the tan-colored 
peoples of Brazil and Ecuador now live under gov- 
ernments of their own instead of being ruled by 
viceroys from Portugal and Spain ; and it is diflficult 
to see why they should be materially affected by a 
similar change happening in regard to the people 
along the Ganges or the upper Nile. Even if China 



National Life and Character 309 

does become a military power on the European 
model, this fact will hardly affect the American and 
Australian at the end of the twentieth century more 
than Japan's effort to get admitted to the circle of 
civilized nations has affected us at the end of the 
nineteenth. 

Finally, it must be borne in mind that if any one 
of the tropical races ever does reach a pitch of indus- 
trial and military prosperity which makes it a men- 
ace to European and American countries, it will 
almost necessarily mean that this nation has itself 
become civilized in the process; and we shall then 
simply be dealing with another civilized nation of 
non- Aryan blood, precisely as we now deal with 
Magyar, Fin, and Basque, without any thought of 
their being ethnically distinct from Croat, Rouman, 
or Wend. 

In Mr. Pearson's second chapter he deals with the 
stationary order of society, and strives to show that 
while w^e are all tending toward it, some nations, 
notably France, have practically come to it. He 
adds that when this stationary state is reached, it will 
produce general discouragement, and will probably 
affect the intellectual energy of the people concerned. 
He further points out that our races now tend to 
change from faith in private enterprises to faith in 
State organizations, and that this is likely to di- 
minish the vigorous originality of any race. He 
even holds that we already see the beginning of a 
decadence, in the decline of speculative thought, and 
still more in the way of mechanical inventions. It 



3IO National Life and Character 

is perfectly true that the laissez-faire doctrine of the 
old school of political economists is receiving less 
and less favor; but, after all, if we look at events 
historically, we see that every race, as it has grown 
to civilized greatness, has used the power of the 
State more and more. A great State can not rely 
on mere unrestricted individualism, any more than it 
can afford to crush out all individualism. Within 
limits, the mercilessness of private commercial war- 
fare must be curbed as we have curbed the individ- 
ual's right of private war power. It was not un- 
til the power of the State had become great in Eng- 
land, and until the lawless individualism of feudal 
times had vanished, that the English people began 
that career of greatness which has put them on a 
level with the Greeks in point of intellectual achieve- 
ment, and with the Romans in point of that material 
success which is measured by extension through set- 
tlement, by conquest, by triumphant warcraft and 
statecraft. As for Mr. Pearson's belief that we 
now see a decline in speculative thought and in me- 
chanical invention, all that can be said is that the 
facts do not bear him out. 

There is one side to this stationary state theory 
which Mr. Pearson scarcely seems to touch. He 
points out with emphasis the fact, which most people 
are prone to deny, that the higher orders of every 
society tend to die out; that there is a tendency, 
on the whole, for both lower classes and lower 
civilizations to increase faster than the higher. 
Taken in the rough, his position on this point is 



National Life and Character jii 

undoubtedly correct. Progressive societies, and the 
most progressive portions of society, fail to increase 
as fast as the others, and often positively decrease. 
The great commanders, great statesmen, great poets, 
great men of science of any period taken together 
do not average as many children who reach years 
of maturity as a similar number of mechanics, work- 
men, and farmers, taken at random. Nevertheless, 
society progresses, the improvement being due main- 
ly to the transmission of acquired characters, a 
process which in every civilized State operates so 
strongly as to counterbalance the operation of that 
baleful law of natural selection which tells against 
the survival of some of the most desirable classes. 
Mr. Balfour, by the way, whose forecast for the 
race is in some respects not unlike Mr. Pearson's, 
seems inclined to adopt the view that acquired char- 
acteristics can not be inherited; a position which, 
even though supported by a few eminent names, is 
hardly worthy serious refutation. 

The point I wish to dwell upon here, however, 
is that it is precisely in those castes which have 
reached the stationary state, or which are positively 
diminishing in numbers, that the highest culture and 
best training, the keenest enjoyment of life, aiul 
the greatest powder of doing good to the community 
are to be found at present. Unquestionably no com- 
munity that is actually diminishing in numl)ers is 
in a healthy condition: and as the world is now. 
with huge waste places still to fill up, and with 
much of the competition between the races reducing 



312 National Life and Character 

itself to the warfare of the cradle, no race has any 
chance to win a great place unless it consists of good 
breeders as well as of good fighters. But it may- 
well be that these conditions will change in the 
future, when the other changes to which Mr. Pear- 
son looks forward with such melancholy, are them- 
selves brought about. A nation sufficiently populous 
to be able to hold its own against aggression 
from without, a nation which, while developing 
the virtues of refinement, culture, and learning, has 
yet not lost those of courage, bold initiative, and 
military hardihood, might well play a great part 
in the world, even though it had come to that sta- 
tionary state already reached by the dominant castes 
of thinkers and doers in most of the dominant races. 
In Mr, Pearson's third chapter he dwells on some 
of the dangers of political development, and in es- 
pecial upon the increase of the town at the expense 
of the country, and upon the growth of great stand- 
ing armies. Excessive urbafi development undoubt- 
edly does constitute a real and great danger. All 
that can be said about it is that it is quite impos- 
sible to prophesy how long this growth will con- 
tinue. Moreover, some of the evils, as far as they 
really exist, will cure themselves. If townspeople 
do, generation by generation, tend to become stunted 
and weak, then they will die out, and the problem 
they cause will not be permanent; while on the 
other hand, if the cities can be made healthy, both 
physically and morally, the objections to them must 
largely disappear. As for standing armies, Mr. 



National Life and Character 



'3 



Pearson here seems to have too much ihouglit of 
Europe only. In America and Austraha there is 
no danger of the upgrowing of great standing 
armies: and, as he well shows, the fact that ever)' 
citizen must undergo military training, is by no 
means a curse to the nations of Continental Euroi>e. 
There is one point, by the way, although a small 
point, where it may be worth while to correct Mr. 
Pearson's statement of a fact. In dwelling on what 
is undoubtedly the truth, that raw militia are utterly 
incompetent to make head against trained regular 
forces, he finds it necessary to explain away the de- 
feat at New Orleans. In doing this he repeats the 
story as it has been told by British historians from 
Sir Archibald Alison to Goldwin Smith. I hasten 
to say that the misstatement is entirely natural on 
Mr. Pearson's part; he was simply copying, with- 
out sufficiently careful investigation, the legend 
adopted by one side to take the sting out of defeat. 
The way he puts it is that six thousand British under 
Pakenham, without artillery, were hurled against 
strong works defended by twice their numbers, and 
were beaten, as they would have been had the works 
been defended by almost any troops in the world. 
In the first place, Pakenham did not have six thou- 
sand men ; he had almost ten thousand. In the second 
place, the Americans, instead of being twice as nu- 
merous as the British, were but little more than half 
as numerous. In the third place, so far from l>eing 
without artillery, the British were much sui)crior 

to the Americans in this resi^ect. Finally, they 
14 Vol. I. 



314 National Life and Character 

assailed a position very much less strong than that 
held by Soult when Wellington beat him at Tou- 
louse with the same troops which were defeated by 
Jackson at New Orleans. The simple truth is that 
Jackson was a very good general, and that he had 
under him troops whom he had trained in successive 
campaigns against Indians and Spaniards, and that 
on the three occasions when he brought Paken- 
ham to battle — that is, the night attack, the great 
artillery duel, and the open assault — the English 
soldiers, though they fought with the utmost gal- 
lantry, were fairly and decisively beaten. 

This one badly chosen premise does not, however, 
upset Mr. Pearson's conclusions. Plenty of in- 
stances can be taken from our War of 18 12 to show 
how unable militia are to face trained regulars ; and 
an equally striking example was that afforded at 
Castlebar, in Ireland, in 1798, when a few hundred 
French regulars attacked with the bayonet and drove 
in headlong flight from a very strong position, de- 
fended by a powerful artillery, five times their num- 
ber of English, Scotch, and Irish militia. 

In Mr. Pearson's fourth chapter he deals, from 
a very noble standpoint, with some advantages of 
national feeling. With this chapter and with his 
praise of patriotism, and particularly of that patriot- 
ism which attaches itself to the whole country, and 
not to any section of it, we can only express our 
hearty agreement. 

In his fifth chapter, on "The DecHne of the Fam- 
ily," he sets forth, or seems to set forth, certain 



National Life and Character 315 

propositions with which I must as heartily dis- 
agree. He seems to lament the change which is 
making the irresponsible despot as much of an anom- 
aly in the family as in the State. He seems to tiiink 
that this will weaken the family. It may do so, in 
some instances, exactly as the abolition of a des- 
potism may produce anarchy; but the movement is 
essentially as good in one case as in the other. To 
all who have known really happy family lives, that 
is to all who have known or have witnessed the 
greatest happiness which there can be on this earth, 
it is hardly necessary to say that the highest ideal 
of the family is attainable only where the father 
and mother stand to each other as lovers and friends, 
with equal rights. In these homes the children are 
bound to father and mother by ties of love, respect, 
and obedience, which are simply strengthened by 
the fact that they are treated as reasonable beingfs 
with rights of their own, and that the rule of the 
household is changed to suit the changing years, as 
childhood passes into manhood and womanhood. 
In such a home the family is not weakened; it is 
strengthened. This is no unattainable ideal. Every- 
one knows hundreds of homes where it is more or 
less perfectly realized, and it is an ideal incom- 
parably higher than the ideal of the beneficent auto- 
crat which it has so largely supplanted. 

The final chapter of Mr. Pearson's book is eiititlctl 
"The Decay of Character." He believes that our 
world is becoming a world with less adventure and 
energy, less brightness and hope. He believes that 



3i6 National Life and Character 

all the great books have been written, all the great 
discoveries made, all the great deeds done. He 
thinks that the adoption of State socialism in some 
form will crush out individual merit and the higher 
kinds of individual happiness. Of course, as to this, 
all that can be said is that men dififer as to what will 
be the effect of the forces whose working he por- 
trays, and that most of us who live in the American 
democracy do not agree with him. It is to the last 
degree improbable that State socialism will ever be 
adopted in its extreme form, save in a few places. 
It exists, of course, to a certain extent wherever a 
police force and a fire department exist; and the 
sphere of the State's action may be vastly increased 
without in any way diminishing the happiness of 
either the many or the few. It is even conceivable 
that a combination of legislative enactments and 
natural forces may greatly reduce the inequalities 
of wealth without in any way diminishing the real 
power of enjoyment or power for good work of 
what are now the favored classes. In our own coun- 
try the best work has always been produced by men 
who lived in castes or social circles where the stand- 
ard of essential comfort w^as high; that is, where 
men were well clothed, well fed, well housed, and had 
plenty of books and the opportunity of using them; 
but where there was small room for extravagant 
luxury. We think that Mr. Pearson's fundamental 
error here is his belief that the raising of the mass 
necessarily means the lowering of the standard of 
life for the fortunate few. Those of us who now 



National Life and Character 317 

live in communities where the native Ameriaui 
element is largest and where there is least inequality 
of conditions, know well that there is no reason 
whatever in the nature of things why, in the future 
communities should not spring up where there shall 
be no great extremes of poverty and wealth, and 
where, nevertheless, the power of civilization and 
the chances for happiness and for doing good work 
shall be greater than ever before. 

As to what Mr. Pearson says about the work of 
the world which is best worth doing being now done, 
the facts do not bear him out. He thinks that the 
great poems have all been written, that the days 
of the drama and the epic are past. Yet one of the 
greatest plays that has ever been produced, always 
excepting the plays of Shakespeare, was produced 
in this century; and if the world had to wait nearly 
two thousand years after the vanishing of the Athe- 
nian dramatists before Shakespeare api)eared, and 
two hundred years more before Goethe wrote his one 
great play, we can well afford to suspend judgment 
for a few hundred years at least, before asserting 
that no country and no language will again produce 
another great drama. So it is with the epic. W'c 
are too near Milton, who came three thousand years 
after Homer, to assert that the centuries to come 
will never more see an epic. One race may grow 
feeble and decrepit and be unable to do any more 
work; but another may take its place. After a time 
the Greek and Latin writers found that they had no 
more to say; and a critic belonging to either na- 



31 8 National Life and Character 

tionality might have shaken his head and said that 
all the great themes had been used up and all the 
great ideas expressed; nevertheless, Dante, Cer- 
vantes, Moliere, Schiller, Chaucer, and Scott, then 
all lay in the future. 

Again, Mr. Pearson speaks of statecraft at the 
present day as offering fewer prizes, and prizes of 
less worth than formerly, and as giving no chance for 
the development of men like Augustus Caesar, Rich- 
elieu, or Chatham. It is difficult to perceive how 
these men can be considered to belong to a different 
class from Bismarck, who is yet alive ; nor do we see 
why any English-speaking people should regard a 
statesman like Chatham, or far greater than Chat- 
ham, as an impossibility nowadays or in the future. 
We Americans at least will with difficulty be per- 
suaded that there has ever been a time when the 
nobler prize of achievement, suffering, and success 
was offered to any statesman than was offered both 
to Washington and to Lincoln. So, when Mr. Pear- 
son speaks of the warfare of civilized countries offer- 
ing less chance to the individual than the warfare of 
savage and barbarous times, and of its being far less 
possible now than in old days for a man to make his 
personal influence felt in warfare, we can only ex- 
press our disagreement. No world-conqueror can 
arise save in or next to highly civilized States. 
There never has been a barbarian Alexander or 
Caesar, Hannibal or Napoleon. Sitting Bull and 
Rain-in-the-Face compare but ill with Von Moltke ; 
and no Norse king of all the heroic viking age 



National Life and Charactei 



3'9 



even so much as began to exercise the inlluence upon 
tlie warfare of his generation that Frederick the 
Great exercised on his. 

It is not true that character of necessity decays 
with the growth of civih'zation. It may. of course 
be true m some cases. Civihzation may tend to de- 
velop upon the lines of Byzantine, Hindoo, and Inca • 
and there are sections of Europe and sections of the 
United States where we now tend to pay heed ex- 
clusively to the peaceful virtues and to develop only 
a race of merchants, lawyers, and professors, who 
will lack the virile qualities that have made our 
race great and splendid. This de^•elopment may 
come, but it need not come necessarily, and, on 
the whole, the probabilities are against its coining 
at all. 

Mr. Pearson is essentially a man of strength and 
courage. Looking into the future the future seems 
to him gray and unattractive ; but he does not preach 
any unmanly gospel of despair. He thinks that in 
time to come, though life will be freer than in the 
past from dangers and vicissitudes, yet it will con- 
tain fewer of the strong pleasures and of the oppor- 
tunities for doing great deeds that are so dear to 
mighty souls. Nevertheless, he advises us all to 
front it bravely whether our hope be great or little : 
and he ends his book with these fine sentences: 
"Even so, there will still remain to us ourselves. 
Simply to do our work in life, and to abide the issue, 
if we stand erect before the eternal calm as cheer- 
fully as our fathers faced the eternal unrest, may l)e 



320 National Life and Character 

nobler training for our souls than the faith in 
progress." 

We do not agree with him that there will be only 
this eternal calm to face ; we do not agree with him 
that the future holds for us a time when we shall 
ask nothing from the day but to live, nor from the 
future but that we may not deteriorate. We do not 
agree with him that there is a day approaching when 
the lower races will predominate in the world and 
the higher races will have lost their noblest elements. 
But after all, it matters little what view we take 
of the future if, in our practice, we but do as he 
preaches, and face resolutely whatever fate may have 
in store. We, ourselves, are not certain that prog- 
ress is assured ; we only assert that it may be as- 
sured if we but live wise, brave, and upright lives. 
We do not know whether the future has in store for 
us calm or unrest. We can not know beyond perad- 
venture whether we can prevent the higher races 
from losing their nobler traits and from being over- 
whelmed by the lower races. On the whole, we think 
that the greatest victories are yet to be w^on, the 
greatest deeds yet to be done, and that there are yet 
in store for our peoples and for the causes that we 
uphold grander triumphs than have ever yet been 
scored. But be this as it may, we gladly agree that 
the one plain duty of every man is to face the fu- 
ture as he faces the present, regardless of what it 
may have in store for him, and, turning toward the 
light as he sees the light, to play his part manfully, 
as a man among men. 



VII 
"SOCIAL EVOLUTION"* 

MR. KIDD'S "Social Evolution" is a sugges- 
tive, but a very crude, book; for the writer is 
burdened by a certain mixture of dogmatism and 
superficiality, which makes him content to accept 
half truths and insist that they are whole truths. 
Nevertheless, though the book appeals chiefly to 
minds of the kind which are uncharitably described 
as "half-baked," Mr. Kidd does suggest certain lines 
of thought which are worth following — though 
rarely to his conclusions. 

He deserves credit for appreciating what he calls 
"the outlook." He sketches graphically, and with 
powder, the problems which now loom up for settle- 
ment before all of us who dwell in Western lands ; 
and he portrays the varying attitudes of interest, 
alarm, and hope with which the thinkers and work- 
ers of the day regard these problems. He points 
out that the problems which now face us are by no 
means parallel to those that were solved by our fore- 
fathers one, two, or three centuries ago. The great 
political revolutions seem to be about complete and 
the time of the great social revolutions has arrived. 
We are all peering eagerly into the future to try to 

* North American Reviezv, July, i8qs. 

(321) 



^n<^^>^vf**M 



322 Social Evolution 

forecast the action of the great dumb forces set in 
operation by the stupendous industrial revolution 
which has taken place during the present century. 
We do not know what to make of the vast displace- 
ments of population, the expansion of the towns, the 
imrest and discontent of the masses, and the uneasi- 
ness of those who are devoted to the present order 
of things. 

Mr. Kidd sees these problems, but he gropes 
blindly when he tries to forecast their solution. He 
sees that the progress of mankind in past ages can 
only have been made under and in accordance with 
certain biological laws, and that these laws continue 
to work in human society at the present day. He 
realizes the all-importance of the laws which govern 
the reproduction of mankind from generation to gen- 
eration, precisely as they govern the reproduction of 
the lower animals, and which, therefore, largely gov- 
ern his progress. But he makes a cardinal mistake 
in treating of this kind of progress. He states with 
the utmost positiveness that, left to himself, man has 
not the slightest innate tendency to make any on- 
ward progress whatever, and that if the conditions 
of life allowed each man to follow his own inclina- 
tions the average of one generation would always 
tend to sink below the average of the preceding. 
This is one of the sweeping generalizations of which 
Mr. Kidd is fond, and which mar so much of his 
work. He evidently finds great difficulty in stat- 
ing a general law with the proper reservations and 
with the proper moderation of phrase; and so he 



Social Evolution 323 

enunciates as truths statements which contain a 
truth, but which also contain a falsehood. What 
he here says is undoubtedly true of the world, taken 
as a whole. It is in all probability entirely false of 
the highest sections of society. At any rate, there 
are numerous instances where the law he states does 
not work; and of course a single instance oversets 
a sweeping declaration of such a kind. 

There can be but little quarrel with what Mr. 
Kidd says as to the record of the world being a rec- 
ord of ceaseless progress on the one hand, and cease- 
less stress and competition on the other; although 
even here his statement is too broad, and his terms 
are used carelessly. When he speaks of progress 
being ceaseless, he evidently means by progress sim- 
ply change, so that as he uses the word it must be 
understood to mean progress backward as well as 
forward. As a matter of fact, in many forms of 
life and for long ages there is absolutely no progress 
whatever, and no change, the forms remaining prac- 
tically stationary. 

Mr. Kidd further points out that the first neces- 
sity for every successful form engaged in this strug- 
gle is the capacity for reproduction beyond the lim- 
its for which the conditions of life comfortably pro- 
vide, so that competition and selection must not only 
always accompany progress, but must prevail in 
every form of life which is not actually retrograd- 
ing. As already said, he accepts without reserva- 
tion the proposition that if all the individuals of 
every generation in any species were allowed to 



3^4 Social Evolution 

propagate their kind equally, the average of each 
generation would tend to fall below the preceding. 
From this position he draws as a corollary, that 
the wider the limits of selection, the keener the ri- 
valry and the more rigid the selection, just so much 
greater will be the progress ; while for any progress 
at all there must be some rivalry in selection, so that 
every progressive form must lead a life of continual 
strain and stress as it travels its upward path. This 
again is true in a measure, but it is not true as 
broadly as Mr. Kidd has stated it. The rivalry of 
natural selection is but one of the features in prog- 
ress. Other things being equal, the species where 
this rivalry is keenest will make most progress ; but 
then "other things" never are equal. In actual life 
those species make most progress which are furthest 
removed from the point where the limits of selection 
are very wide, the selection itself very rigid, and the 
rivalry very keen. Of course the selection is most 
rigid where the fecundity of the animal is greatest; 
but it is precisely the forms which have most fe- 
cundity that have made least progress. Some time 
in the remote past the guinea-pig and the dog had 
a common ancestor. The fecundity of the guinea- 
pig is much greater than that of the dog. Of a 
given number of guinea-pigs born, a much smaller 
proportion are able to survive in the keen rivalry, so 
that the limits of selection are wider, and the selec- 
tion itself more rigid ; nevertheless the progress made 
by the progenitors of the dog since eocene days has 
been much more marked and rapid than the progress 



Social Evolution 325 

made by the progenitors of the guinea-pig in the 
same time. 

Moreover, in speaking of the rise that has come 
through the stress of competition in our modern so- 
cieties, and of the keenness of this stress in the 
societies that have gone fastest, Mr. Kidd overlooks 
certain very curious features in human society. In 
the first place, he speaks as though the stress under 
which nations make progress was primarily the stress 
produced by multiplication beyond the hmits of sub- 
sistence. This, of course, would mean that in pro- 
gressive societies the number of births and the num- 
ber of deaths would both be at a maximum, for it 
is where the births and deaths are largest that the 
struggle for life is keenest. If, as Mr. Kidd's hy- 
pothesis assumes, progress was most marked where 
the struggle for life was keenest, the European peo- 
ples standing highest in the scale would be the South 
Italians, the Polish Jews, and the people who live in 
the congested districts of Ireland. As a matter of 
fact, however, these are precisely the peoples who 
have made least progress when compared with the 
dominant strains among, for instance, the English 
or Germans. So far is Mr. Kidd's proposition from 
being true that, when studied in the light of the 
facts, it is difficult to refrain from calling it the re- 
verse of the truth. The race existing under contli- 
tions which make the competition for bare existence 
keenest, never progresses as fast as the race which 
exists under less stringent conditions. There must 
undoubtedly be a certain amount of competition, a 



326 Social Evolution 

certain amount of stress and strain, but it is equally 
undoubted that if this competition becomes too se- 
vere the race goes down and not up ; and it is further 
true that the race existing under the severest stress 
as regards this competition often fails to go ahead 
as fast even in population as does the race where 
the competition is less severe. No matter how large 
the number of births may be, a race can not increase 
if the number of deaths also grows at an accelerat- 
ing rate. 

To increase greatly a race must be prolific, and 
there is no curse so great as the curse of barrenness, 
whether for a nation or an individual. When a peo- 
ple gets to the position even now occupied by the 
mass of the French and" by sections of the New 
Englanders, where the death rate surpasses the 
birth rate, then that race is not only fated to extinc- 
tion, but it deserves extinction. When the ca- 
pacity and desire for fatherhood and motherhood 
is lost the race goes down, and should go down ; and 
we need to have the plainest kind of plain speaking 
addressed to those individuals who fear to bring 
children into the world. But while this is all true, 
it remains equally true that immoderate increase 
in no way furthers the development of a race, and 
does not always help its increase even in numbers. 
The English-speaking peoples during the past two 
centuries and a half have increased faster than any 
others, yet there have been many other peoples whose 
birth rate during the same period has stood higher. 

Yet, again Mr. Kidd, in speaking of the stress of 



Social Evolution 327 

the conditions of progress in our modern societies, 
fails to see that most of the stress to which he refers 
does not have anything to do with increased diffi- 
culty in obtaining a living, or with the propagation 
of the race. The great prizes are battled for among 
the men who wage no war whatever for mere sub- 
sistence, while the fight for mere subsistence is keen- 
est among precisely the classes which contribute 
very little indeed to the progress of the race. IMie 
generals and admirals, the poets, philosophers, his- 
torians and musicians, the statesmen and judges, the 
law-makers and law-givers, the men of arts and of 
letters, the great captains of war and of industry — 
all these come from the classes where the struggle 
for the bare means of subsistence is least severe. 
and where the rate of increase is relatively smaller 
than in the classes below. In civilized societies the 
rivalry of natural selection works against progress. 
Progress is made in spite of it, for progress results 
not from the crowding out of the lower classes by 
the upper, but on the contrary from the steady rise 
of the lower classes to the level of the upper, as the 
latter tend to vanish, or at most barely hold their 
own. In progressive societies it is often the least 
fit who survive; but, on the other hand, they and 
their children often tend to grow more fit. 

The mere statement of these facts is sufficient to 
show not only how incorrect are many of I\Ir. Kidd's 
premises and conclusions, but also how unwarranted 
are some of the fears which he expresses for tlie fu- 
ture. It is plain that the societies and sections of 



328 Social Evolution 

societies where the individual's happiness is on the 
whole highest, and where progress is most real and 
valuable, are precisely these where the grinding com- 
petition and the struggle for mere existence is least 
severe. Undoubtedly in very progressive society 
there must be a certain sacrifice of individuals, so 
that there must be a certain proportion of failures 
in every generation ; but the actual facts of life prove 
beyond shadow of doubt that the extent of this 
sacrifice has nothing to do with the rapidity or worth 
of the progress. The nations that make most prog- 
ress may do so at the expense of ten or fifteen indi- 
viduals out of a hundred, whereas the nations that 
make least progress, or even go backward, may sacri- 
fice almost every man out of the hundred. 

This last statement is in itself partly an answer 
to the position taken by Mr. Kidd that there is for 
the individual no "rational sanction" for the con- 
ditions of progress. In a progressive community, 
where the conditions provide for the happiness of 
four-fifths or nine-tenths of the people, there is un- 
doubtedly a rational sanction for progress both for 
the community at large and for the great bulk of its 
members; and if these members are on the whole 
vigorous and intelligent, the attitude of the smaller 
fraction who have failed will be a matter of little 
consequence. In such a community the conflict be- 
tween the interests of the individual and the organ- 
ism of which he is a part, upon which Mr. Kidd lays 
so much emphasis, is at a minimum. The stress is 
severest, the misery and suffering greatest, among 



Social Evolution 329 

precisely the communities which have made least 
progress — among the Bushmen, Austrahan black 
fellows, and root-digger Indians, for instance. 

Moreover, Mr. Kidd does not define what he 
means by "rational sanction." Indeed one of his 
great troubles throughout is his failure to make 
proper definitions, and the extreme looseness with 
which he often uses the definitions he does make. 
Apparently by "rational" he means merely selfish, 
and proceeds upon the assumption that "reason" 
must always dictate to every man to do that which 
will give him the greatest amount of individual 
gratification at the moment, no matter what the cost 
may be to others or to the community at large. This 
is not so. Side by side with the selfish develop- 
ment in life there has been almost from the begin- 
ning a certain amount of unselfish development too ; 
and in the evolution of humanity the unselfish side 
has, on the whole, tended steadily to increase at the 
expense of the selfish, notably in the progressive 
communities about whose future development Mr. 
Kidd is so ill at ease. A more supreme instance of 
unselfishness than is afforded by motherhood can 
not be imagined ; and when Mr. Kidd implies, as he 
does very clearly, that there is no rational sanctioti 
for the unselfishness of motherhood, for the unself- 
ishness of duty, or loyalty, he merely misuses the 
word rational. When a creature has reached a cer- 
tain stage of development it will cause the female 
more pain to see her offspring starve than to work 
for it, and she then has a very rational reason for 



33^ Social Evolution 

so working. When humanity has reached a certain 
stage it will cause the individual more pain, a greater 
sense of degradation and shame and misery, to steal, 
to murder, or to lie, than to work hard and suffer 
discomfort. When man has reached this stage he 
has a very rational sanction for being truthful and 
honest. It might also parenthetically be stated that 
when he has reached this stage he has a tendency to 
relieve the sufferings of others, and he has for this 
course the excellent rational sanction that it makes 
him more uncomfortable to see misery unrelieved 
than it does to deny himself a little in order to re- 
lieve it. 

However, we can cordially agree with Mr. Kidd's 
proposition that many of the social plans advanced 
by would-be reformers in the interest of oppressed 
individuals are entirely destructive of all growth 
and of all progress in society. Certain cults, not 
only Christian, but also Buddhistic and Brahminic, 
tend to develop an altruism which is as "supra-nat- 
ural" as Mr. Kidd seemingly desires religion to be ; 
for it really is without foundation in reason, and 
therefore to be condemned. 

Mr. Kidd repeats again and again that the sci- 
entific development of the nineteenth century con- 
fronts us with the fact that the interests of the social 
organism and of the individual are, and must remain, 
antagonistic, and the latter predominant, and that 
there can never be found any sanction in individual 
reason for individual good conduct in societies where 
the conditions of progress prevail. From what has 



Social Evolution 331 

been said above it is evident that this statement is 
entirely without basis, and therefore that the whole 
scheme of mystic and highly irrational philosophy 
which he founds upon it at once falls to the ground. 
There is no such necessary antagonism as that whicii 
he alleges. On the contrary, in the most truly 
progressive societies, even now, for the great mass 
of the individuals composing them the interests of 
the social organism and of the individual are largely 
identical instead of antagonistic; and even where 
this is not true, there is a sanction of individual 
reason, if we use the word reason properly, for con- 
duct on the part of the individual which is subordi- 
nate to the welfare of the general society. 

We can measure the truth of his statements by 
applying them, not to great societies in the abstract, 
but to small social organisms in the concrete. Take 
for instance the life of a regiment or the organiza- 
tion of a police department or fire department. The 
first duty of a regiment is to fight, and fighting 
means the death and disabling of a large proportion 
of the men in the regiment. The case against the 
identity of interests between the individual and the 
organism, as put by Mr. Kidd, would be far strong- 
er in a regiment than in any ordinary civilized 
society of the day. Yet as a matter of fact we know 
that in the great multitude of regiments there is 
much more subordination of the individual to the 
organism than is the case in any civilized State 
taken as a whole. Moreover, this subordination is 
greatest in precisely those regiments where the aver- 



23^ Social Evolution 

age individual is best off, because it is greatest in 
those regiments where the individual feels that high, 
stern pride in his own endurance and suffering, 
and in the great name of the organism of which 
he forms a part, that in itself yields one of the 
loftiest of all human pleasures. If Mr. Kidd means 
anything when he says that there is no rational 
sanction for progress he must also mean that there 
is no rational sanction for a soldier not flinching 
from the enemy when he can do so unobserved, for 
a sentinel not leaving his post, for an ofiicer not 
deserting to the enemy. Yet when he says this he 
utters what is a mere jugglery on words. In the 
process of evolution men and societies have often 
reached such a stage that the best type of soldier or 
citizen feels infinitely more shame and misery from 
neglect of duty, from cowardice or dishonesty, from 
selfish abandonment of the interests of the organism 
of which he is part, than can be offset by the gratifi- 
cation of any of his desires. This, be it also ob- 
served, often takes place, entirely independent of 
any religious considerations. The habit of useful 
self-sacrifice may be developed by civilization in a 
great society as well as by military training in 
a regiment. The habit of useless self-sacrifice 
may also, unfortunately, be developed; and those 
who practice it are but one degree less noxious 
than the individuals who sacrifice good people to 

bad. 

The religious element in our development is that 
on which Mr. Kidd most strongly dwells, entitling 



Social Evolution 3;^^ 

it "the central feature of human history." A very 
startling feature of his treatment is that in rehgious 
matters he seemingly sets no value on the difference 
betw^een truth and falsehood, for he groups all re- 
ligions together. In a would-be teacher of ethics 
such an attitude warrants severe rebuke; for it is 
essentially dishonest and immoral. Throughout 
his book he treats all religious beliefs from the 
same standpoint, as if they were all substantially 
similar and substantially of the same value; where- 
as it is, of course, a mere truism to say that most 
of them are mutually destructive. Not only has he 
no idea of differentiating the true from the false, 
but he seems not to understand that the truth of 
a particular belief is of any moment. Thus he says, 
in speaking of the future survival of religious be- 
liefs in general, that the most notable result of the 
scientific revolution begun by Darwin must be "to 
establish them on a foundation as broad, deep, and 
lasting as any the theologians ever dreamed of/' 
If this sentence means anything it means that all 
these religious beliefs will be established on the same 
foundation. It hardly seems necessary to point out 
that this can not be the fact. If the God of the 
Christians be in very truth the one God, and if the 
belief in Him be established, as Christians believe 
it will, then the foundation for the religious belief 
in Mumbo Jumbo can be neither broad, deep, nor 
lasting. In the same way the beliefs in Mohammed 
and Buddha are mutually exclusive, and the various 
forms of ancestor worship and fetichism can not all 



334 Social Evolution 

be established on a permanent basis, as they would 
be according to Mr. Kidd's theory. ^ 

Again, when Mr. Kidd rebukes science for its 
failure to approach religion in a scientific spirit he 
shows that he fails to grasp the full bearing of the 
subject which he is considering. This failure comes 
in part from the very large, not to say loose, way 
in which he uses the words "science" and "religion." 
There are many sciences and many religions, and 
there are many different kinds of men who profess 
the one or advocate the other. Where the intolerant 
professors of a given religious belief endeavor by 
any form of persecution to prevent scientific men 
of any kind from seeking to find out and establish 
the truth, then it is quite idle to blame these scientific 
men for attacking with heat and acerbity the relig- 
ious belief which prompts such persecution. The 
exigencies of a life and death struggle unfit a man 
for the coldness of a mere scientific inquiry. Even 
the most enthusiastic naturalist, if attacked by a 
man-eating shark, would be much more interested 
in evading or repelling the attack than in determin- 
ing the precise specific relations of the shark. A 
less important but amusing feature of his argument 
is that he speaks as if he himself had made an 
entirely new discovery when he learned of the im- 
portant part played in man's history by his religious 
beliefs. But Mr. Kidd surely can not mean this. 
He must be aware that all the great historians have 
given their full importance to such religious move- 
ments as the birth and growth of Christianity, the 



Social Evolution 335 

Reformation, the growth of Islamism, and the Hke. 
Mr. Kidd is quite right in insisting upon the im- 
portance of the part played by religious behefs, but 
he has fallen into a vast error if he fails to under- 
stand that the great majority of the historical and 
sociological writers have given proper weight to 
this importance. 

Mr. Kidd's greatest failing is his tendency to use 
words in false senses. He uses "reason" in the false 
sense "selfish." He then, in a spirit of mental tau- 
tology, assumes that reason must be necessarily 
purely selfish and brutal. He assumes that the man 
who risks his life to save a friend, the woman who 
watches over a sick child, and the soldier who dies 
at his post, are unreasonable, and that the more their 
reason is developed the less likely they will be to 
act in these ways. The mere statement of the asser- 
tion in such a form is sufficient to show its nonsense 
to any one who will take the pains to think whether 
the people who ordinarily perform such feats of 
self-sacrifice and self-denial are people of brutish 
minds or of fair intelligence. 

If none of the ethical qualities are developed at 
the same time with a man's reason, then he may 
become a peculiarly noxious kind of wild beast ; but 
this is not in the least a necessity of the develop- 
ment of his reason. It would be just as wise to say 
that it was a necessity of the development of his bod- 
ily strength. Undoubtedly the man with reason 
who is selfish and unscrupulous will, because of his 
added power, behave even worse than the man with- 



226 Social Evolution 

out reason who is selfish and imscrupulous ; but the 
same is true of the man of vast bodily strength. He 
has power to do greater harm to himself and to 
others; but, because of this, to speak of bodily 
strength or of reason as in itself "profoundly anti- 
sociaf and anti-evolutionary" is foolishness. Mr. 
Kidd, as so often, is misled by a confusion of names 
for which he is himself responsible. The growth 
of rationalism, unaccompanied by any growth m 
ethics or morality, works badly. The society in 
which such a growth takes place will die out, and 
ought to die out. But this does not imply that other 
communities quite as intelligent may not also be 
deeply moral and be able to take firm root in the 

world. J 

Mr Kidd's definitions of "supra-natural and 

"ultra-rational" sanctions, the definitions upon which 
he insists so strongly and at such length, would ap- 
ply quite as well to every crazy superstition of the 
most brutal savage as to the teachings of the New 
Testament. The trouble with his argument is that, 
when he insists upon the importance of this ultra- 
rational sanction, defining it as loosely as he does, 
he insists upon too much. He apparently denies 
that men can come to a certain state at which it will 
be rational for them to do right even to their own 
hurt. It is perfectly possible to build up a civiliza- 
tion which, by its surroundings and by its inheri- 
tances, working through long ages, shall make the 
bulk of the men and women develop such character- 
istics of unselfishness, as well as of wisdom, that it 



Social Evolution 337 

will be the rational thing for them as individuals to 
act in accordance with the highest dictates of honor 
and courage and morality. If the intellectual de- 
velopment of such a civilized community goes on at 
an equal pace with the ethical, it will persistently 
war against the individuals in whom the spirit of 
selfishness, which apparently Mr. Kidd considers 
the only rational spirit, shows itself strongly. It will 
weed out these individuals and forbid their prop- 
agating, and therefore will steadily tend to produce 
a society in which the rational sanction for progress 
shall be identical in the individual and the State. 
This ideal has never yet been reached, but long steps 
have been taken toward reaching it; and in most 
progressive civilizations it is reached to the extent 
that the sanction for progress is the same not only 
for the State but for each one of the bulk of the in- 
dividuals composing it. When this ceases to be the 
case progress itself will generally cease and the com- 
munity ultimately disappear. 

Mr. Kidd, having treated of religion in a pre- 
liminary way, and with much mystic vagueness, then 
attempts to describe the functions of religious belief 
in the evolution of society. He has already given 
definitions of religion quoted from different authors, 
and he now proceeds to give his own definition. But 
first he again insists upon his favorite theory, that 
there can be no rational basis for individual good 
conduct in society, using the word rational, accord- 
ing to his usual habit, as a synonym of selfish ; and 

then asserts that there can be no such thing as a 
15 Vol. I. 



33^ Social Evolution 

rational religion. Apparently all that Mr. Kidd 
demands on this point is that it shall be what he calls 
ultra-rational, a word which he prefers to irrational. 
In other words, he casts aside as irrelevant all dis- 
cussion as to a creed's truth. 

Mr. Kidd then defines religion as being "a form 
of belief providing an ultra-rational sanction for 
that large class of conduct in the individual where 
his interests and the interests of the social organism 
are antagonistic, and by which the former are ren- 
dered subordinate to the latter in the general interest 
of the evolution which the race is undergoing," and 
says that we have here the principle at the base of all 
religions. Of course this is simply not true. All 
those religions which busy themselves exclusively 
with the future life, and which even Mr. Kidd could 
hardly deny to be religions, do not have this prin- 
ciple at their base at all. They have nothing to do 
with the general interests of the evolution which the 
race is undergoing on this earth. They have to do 
only with the soul of the individual in the future 
life. They are not concerned with this world, 
they are concerned with the world to come. All 
religions, and all forms of religions, in which the 
principle of asceticism receives any marked de- 
velopment are positively antagonistic to the devel- 
opment of the social organism. They are against 
its interests. They do not tend in the least to sub- 
ordinate the interests of the individual to the inter- 
ests of the organism "in the general interest of the 
evolution which the race is undergoing." A religion 



Social Evolution 339 

like that of the Shakers means the ahnost immediate 
extinction of the organism in which it develops. 
Such a religion distinctly subordinates the interests 
of the organism to the interests of the in(hvidual. 
The same is equally true of many of the more ascetic 
developments of Christianity and Islam. There is 
strong probability that there was a Celtic popula- 
tion in Iceland before the arrival of the Norsemen, 
but these Celts belonged to the Culdee sect of Chris- 
tians. They were anchorites, and professed a creed 
which completely subordinated the development of 
the race on this earth to the well-being of the in- 
dividual in the next. In consequence they died out 
and left no successors. There are creeds, such as 
most of the present day creeds of Christianity, both 
Protestant and Catholic, which do very noble work 
for the race because they teach its individuals to 
subordinate their own interests to the interests of 
mankind ; but it is idle to say this of every form of 
religious belief. 

It is equally idle to pretend that this principle, 
which Mr. Kidd says lies at the base of all religions, 
does not also lie at the base of many forms of 
ethical belief which could hardly be called religious. 
His definition of religion could just as appropriately 
be used to define some forms of altruism or human- 
itarianism, while it does not define religion at all, 
if we use the word religion in the way in which it 
generally is used If Mr. Kidd should write a book 
about horses, and should define a horse as a strijicd 
equine animal found wild in South Africa, his defini- 



340 Social Evolution 

tion would apply to certain members of the horse 
family, but would not apply to that animal which 
we ordinarily mean when we talk of a horse; and, 
moreover, it would still be sufficiently loose to in- 
clude two or three entirely distinct species. This 
is precisely the trouble with Mr. Kidd's definition 
of religion. It does not define religion at all as the 
word is ordinarily used, and while it does apply to 
certain religious beliefs, it also applies quite as well 
to certain non-religious beliefs. We must, there- 
fore, recollect that throughout Mr. Kidd's argument 
on behalf of the part that religion plays he does not 
mean what is generally understood by religion, but 
the special form or forms which he here defines. 

Undoubtedly, in the race for life, that group of 
beings will tend ultimately to survive in which the 
general feeling of the members, whether due to 
humanitarianism, to altruism, or to some form of 
religious belief proper, is such that the average in- 
dividual has an unselfish — what Mr. Kidd would 
call an ultra-rational — tendency to work for the 
ultimate benefit of the community as a whole. Mr. 
Kidd's argument is so loose that it may be construed 
as meaning that, in the evolution of society, irra- 
tional superstitions grow up from time to time, 
affect large bodies of the human race in their course 
of development, and then die away; and that this 
succession of evanescent religious beliefs will con- 
tinue for a very long time to come, perhaps as long 
as the human race exists. He may further mean 
that, except for this belief in a long succession of 



Social Evolution 341 

lies, humanity could not go forward. His words, 
I repeat, are sufficiently involved to make it pos- 
sible that he means this, but, if so, his book can 
hardly be taken as a satisfactoiy defence of re- 
ligion. 

If there is justification for any given religion, 
and justification for the acceptance of supernatural 
authority as regards this rehgion, then there can 
be no justification for the acceptance of all rehgions, 
good and bad alike. There can, at the outside, be 
a justification for but one or two. Mr. Kidd's group- 
ing of all religions together is offensive to every 
earnest believer. Moreover, in his anxiety to in- 
sist only on the irrational side of religion, he natural- 
ly tends to exalt precisely those forms of superstition 
which are most repugnant to reasoning beings with 
moral instincts, and which are most heartily con- 
demned by believers in the loftiest reHgions. He 
apparently condemns Lecky for what Lecky says 
of that species of unpleasant and noxious anchorite 
best typified by St. Simeon Stylites and the other 
pillar hermits. He corrects Lecky for his estimate 
of this ideal of the fourth century, and says that 
instead of being condemned it should be praised, as 
afifording striking evidence and example of the vigor 
of the immature social forces at work. This is 
not true. The type of anchorite of which Mr. Lecky 
speaks with such just condemnation flourished most 
rankly in Christian Africa and Asia Minor, the very 
countries where Christianity was so speechiy over- 
thrown by Islam. It was not an example of the 



342 Social Evolution 

vigor of the immature social forces at work ; on the 
contrary, it was a proof that those social forces were 
rotten and had lost their vigor. Where an anchorite 
of the type Lecky describes, and Mr. Kidd impliedly 
commends, was accepted as the true type of the 
church, and set the tone for religious thought, the 
church was corrupt, and was unable to make any 
effective defence against the scarcely baser form of 
superstition which received its development in Is- 
lamism. As a matter of fact, asceticism of this kind 
had very little in common with the really vigorous 
and growing part of European Christianity, even 
at that time. Such asceticism is far more close- 
ly related to the practices of some loathsome 
Mohammedan dervish than to any creed which has 
properly developed from the pure and lofty teachings 
of the Four Gospels. St. Simeon Stylites is more 
nearly kin to a Hindoo fakir than to Phillips Brooks 
or Archbishop Ireland. 

Mr. Kidd deserves praise for insisting as he does 
upon the great importance of the development of 
humanitarian feeHngs and of the ethical element in 
humanity during the past few centuries, when com- 
pared with the mere material development. He is, 
of course, entirely right in laying the utmost stress 
upon the enormous part taken by Christianity in 
the growth of Western civilization. He would do 
well to remember, however, that there are other ele- 
ments than that of merely ceremonial Christianity 
at work, and that such ceremonial Christianity in 
other races produces quite different results, as he 



Social Evolution 343 

will see at a glance, if he will recall that Abyssinia 
and Hayti are Christian countries. 

In short, whatever Mr. Kidd says in reference to 
religion must be understood as being strictly limited 
by his own improper terminology. If we should 
accept the words religion and religious belief in their 
ordinary meaning, and should then accept as true 
what he states, we should apparently have to con- 
clude that progress depended largely upon the fervor 
of the religious spirit, without regard to whether the 
religion itself was false or true. If such were the 
fact, progress would be most rapid in a country like 
Morocco, where the religious spirit is very strong 
indeed, far stronger than in any enlightened Chris- 
tian country, but where, in reality, the religious de- 
velopment has largely crushed out the ethical, and 
moral development, so that the country has gone 
steadily backward. A little philosophic study 
would convince Mr. Kidd that while the ethical and 
moral development of a nation may, in the case of 
certain rehgions, be based on those religions and de- 
velop with them and on the lines laid down by them, 
yet that in other countries where they develop at 
all they have to develop right in the teeth of the 
dominant religious beliefs, while in yet others they 
may develop entirely independent of them. If he 
doubts this let him examine the condition of the 
Soudan under the Mahdi, where what he calls the 
ultra-rational and supra-natural sanctions were ac- 
cepted without question, and governed the lives of 
the people to the exclusion alike of reason and mo- 



344 Social Evolution 

rality. He will hardly assert that the Soudan is 
more progressive than say Scotland or Minnesota, 
where there is less of the spirit which he calls relig- 
ious and which old-fashioned folk would call su- 
perstitious. 

Mr. Kidd's position in reference to the central 
feature of his argument is radically false; but he 
handles some of his other themes very well. He 
shows clearly in his excellent chapter on modern so- 
cialism that a state of retrogression must ensue if 
all incentives to strife and competition are with- 
drawn. He does not show quite as clearly as he 
should that over-competition and too severe stress 
make the race deteriorate instead of improving ; but 
he does show that there must be some competition, 
that there must be some strife. He makes it clear 
also that the true function of the State, as it inter- 
feres in social life, should be to make the chances of 
competition more even, not to abolish them. We 
wish the best men ; and though we pity the man that 
falls or lags behind in the race, we do not on that 
account crown him with the victor's wreath. We 
insist that the race shall be run on fairer terms than 
before because we remove all handicaps. We thus 
tend to make it more than ever a test of the real 
merits of the victor, and this means that the victor 
must strive heart and soul for success. Mr. Kidd's 
attitude in describing socialism is excellent. He 
sympathizes with the wrongs which the socialistic 
reformer seeks to redress, but he insists that these 
wrongs must not be redressed, as the socialists 



Social Evolution 345 

would have them, at the cost of the welfare of 
mankind. 

Mr. Kidd also sees that the movement for political 
equality has nearly come to an end, for its purpose 
has been nearly achieved. To it must now succeed 
a movement to bring all people into the rivalry of 
life on equal conditions of social opportunity. This 
is a very important point, and he deserves the ut- 
most credit for bringing- it out. It is the great cen- 
tral feature in the development of our time, and 
Mr. Kidd has seen it so clearly and presented it so 
forcibly that we can not but regret that he should 
be so befogged in other portions of his argument. 

Mr. Kidd has our cordial sympathy when he lays 
stress on the fact that our evolution can not be called 
primarily intellectual. Of course there must be an 
intellectual evolution, too, and Mr. Kidd perhaps 
fails in not making this sufificiently plain. A per- 
fectly stupid race can never rise to a very high plane ; 
the negro, for instance, has been kept down as much 
by lack of intellectual development as by anything 
else; but the prime factor in the preservation of a 
race is its power to attain a high degree of social 
efficiency. Love of order, ability to fight well and 
breed well, capacity to subordinate the interests of 
the individual to the interests of the community, 
these and similar rather humdrum qualities go to 
make up the sum of social efficiency. The race that 
has them is sure to overturn the race \v'hose mem- 
bers have brilliant intellects, but who are cold and 
selfish and timid, who do not breed well or fight 



346 Social Evolution 

well, and who are not capable of disinterested love 
of the community. In other words, character is far 
more important than intellect to the race as to the 
individual. We need intellect, and there is no rea- 
son why we should not have it together with char- 
acter; but if we must choose between the two we 
choose character without a moment's hesitation. 



VIII 
THE LAW OF CIVILIZATION AND DECAY* 

FEW more melancholy books have been written 
than Mr. Brooks Adams's "Law of Civilization 
and Decay." It is a marvel of compressed statement. 
In a volume of less than four hundred pages Mr. 
Adams singles out some of the vital factors in the 
growth and evolution of civilized life during the 
last two thousand years; and so brilliant is his dis- 
cussion of these factors as to give, though but a 
glimpse, yet one of the most vivid glimpses ever 
given, of some of the most important features in 
the world-life of Christendom. Of some of the 
features only; for a fundamentally defective point 
in Mr. Adams's brilliant book is his failure to 
present certain phases of the life of the nations,— 
phases which are just as important as those which 
he discusses with such vigorous ability. Further- 
more, he disregards not a few facts which would 
throw light on others, the weight "of which he fully 
recognizes. Both these shortcomings are very nat- 
ural in a writer w^ho possesses an entirely original 
point of view, who is the first man to see clearly 
certain things that to his predecessors have been 
nebulous, and who wa-ites with a fervent intensity of 

* The Forum, January, 1897. 

(347) 



34^ Civilization and Decay 

conviction, even in his bitterest cynicism, such as 
we are apt to associate rather with the prophet and 
reformer than with a historian to whom prophet 
and reformer aHke appeal no more than do their an- 
titypes. It is a rare thing for a historian to make 
a distinct contribution to the philosophy of history ; 
and this Mr. Adams has done. Naturally enough, 
he, like other men who break new ground, tends here 
and there to draw a devious furrow. 

The book is replete with vivid writing, and with 
sentences and paragraphs which stand out in the 
memory as marvels in the art of presenting the vital 
features of a subject with a few master-strokes. The 
story of the Crusades, the outline of the English 
conquest of India, and the short tale of the rise of 
the House of Rothschild, are masterpieces. Nowhere 
else is it possible to find in the same compass any 
description of the Crusades so profound in its appre- 
ciation of the motives behind them, so startling in 
the vigor with which the chief actors, and the chief 
events, are portrayed. Indeed, one is almost tempted 
to say that it is in the description of the Crusades 
that Mr. Adams is at his best. He is dealing with 
a giant movement of humanity; and he grasps not 
only the colossal outward manifestations, but also 
the spirit itself, and, above all, the strange and sin- 
ister changes which that spirit underwent. His 
mere description of the Baronies set up by the Cru- 
saders in the conquered Holy Land, with their loose 
feudal government, brings them before the reader's 
eyes as few volumes specially devoted to the sub- 



Civilization and Decay 349 

ject could. It is difficult to write of a fortress and 
make a pen-picture which will always stay in the 
mind ; yet this is what Mr. Adams has done in deal- 
ing with the grim religious castles, terrible in size 
and power, which were built by the Kniglits of the 
Temple and the Hospital as bulwarks against Sara- 
cen might. He is not only a scholar of much re- 
search, but a student of art, who is so much more 
than a mere student as to be thrilled and possessed 
by what he studies. He shows, with a beauty and 
vigor of style not unbecoming his subject, how pro- 
foundly the art of Europe was affected by the Cru- 
sades. It is not every one who can write with equal 
interest of sacred architecture and military engineer- 
ing, who can appreciate alike the marvels of Gothic 
cathedrals and the frowning strength of feudal for- 
tresses, and who furthermore can trace their inter- 
relation. 

The story of the taking of Constantinople by the 
Crusaders who followed the lead of the blind Doge 
Dandolo is told with an almost brutal ruthlessness 
quite befitting the deed itself. Nowhere else in the 
book is Mr. Adams happier in his insistence upon 
the conflict between what he calls the economic and 
the imaginative spirits. The incident sets well with 
his favorite theory of the inevitable triumph of the 
economic over the imaginative man, as societies 
grow centralized and the no less ine\'itable fossiliza- 
tion and ruin of the body politic which this very tri- 
umph itself ultimately entails. The histor}^ of the 
English conquest of India is only less vividly told. 



3S^ Civilization and Decay 

Incidentally, it may be mentioned that one of Mr. 
Adams's many merits is his contemptuous refusal to 
be misled by modern criticism of Macaulay. He sees 
Macaulay's greatness as a historian, and his essen- 
tial truthfulness on many of the very points where 
he has been most sharply criticised. 

Mr. Adams's book, however, is far more than a 
mere succession of brilliant episodes. He fully sees 
that the value of facts lies in their relation to one 
another; and from the facts as he sees them he de- 
duces certain laws with more than a Thucydidean 
indifference as to his own individual approval or 
disapproval of the development. The life of nations, 
like any other form of life, is but one manifestation 
of energy; and Mr. Adams's decidedly gloomy phi- 
losophy of life may be gathered from the fact that 
he places fear and greed as the two forms of energy 
which stand conspicuously predominant; fear in the 
earlier, and greed in the later, stages of evolution 
from barbarism to civilization. Civilization itself 
he regards merely as the history of the movement 
from a condition of physical distribution to one of 
physical concentration. During the earlier stages 
of this movement the imaginative man — the man 
who stands in fear of a priesthood — is, in his opin- 
ion, the representative type, while with him, and al- 
most equally typical, stand the soldier and the artist. 
As consolidation advances, the economic man — the 
man of industry, trade, and capital — tends to sup- 
plant the emotional and artistic types of manhood, 
and finally himself develops along two lines, — "the 



Civilization and Decay 351 

usurer in his most formidable aspect, and the peas- 
ant whose nervous system is best adapted to thrive 
on scanty nutriment." These two very unattractive 
types are, in his behef, the inevitable final products 
of all civilization, as civilization has hitherto devel- 
oped; and when they have once been produced there 
follows either a stationary period, during which the 
whole body politic gradually ossifies and atrophies, 
or else a period of utter disintegration. 

This is not a pleasant theor>s- it is in many re- 
spects an entirely false theory; but nevertheless 
there is in it a very ugly element of truth. One 
does not have to accept either all Mr. Adams's the- 
ories or all his facts in order to recognize more than 
one disagreeable resemblance between the world as 
it is to-day, and the Roman world under the Em- 
pire, or the Greek world under the successors of 
Alexander. Where he errs is in his failure to ap- 
preciate the fundamental differences which utterly 
destroy any real parallelism between the two sets of 
cases. Indeed, his zeal in championing his theories 
leads him at times into positions which are seen at 
a glance to be untenable. 

Probably Mr. Adams's account of the English 
Reformation, and of Henry VIII and his instru- 
ments, is far nearer the truth than Fronde's. But his 
view of the evils upon which the reformers as a 
whole waged war, and of the spirit which lay behind 
the real leaders and spurred them on, is certainly 
less accurate than the view given by Fronde in his 
"Erasmus" and "Council of Trent." It can W 



3S^ Civilization and Decay 

partly corrected by the study of a much less readable 
book — Mr. Henry C. Lea's work on "The Inquisi- 
tion." Yet Mr. Adams's description of the English 
Reformation is very powerful, and has in it a vein 
of bitter truth ; though on the whole it is perhaps not 
so well done as his account of the suppression of the 
Templars in France. If he can be said to have any 
heroes, the Templars must certainly be numbered 
among them. 

He is at his best in describing the imaginative 
man, and especially the imaginative man whose en- 
ergy manifests itself in the profession of arms. His 
description of the tremendous change which passed 
over Europe during the centuries which saw what 
is commonly called the decay of faith, is especially 
noteworthy. In no other history are there to be 
found two sentences which portray more vividly the 
reasons for the triumph of the great Pope Hilde- 
brand over the Emperor Henry than these: 

"To Henry's soldiers the world was a vast space 
peopled by those fantastic beings which are still 
seen on Gothic towers. These demons obeyed the 
monk of Rome, and his army, melting from the Em- 
peror under a nameless horror, left him helpless." 

His account of the contrast between the relations 
of Philip Augustus and of Philip the Fair with the 
Church is dramatic in its intensity. To Mr. Adams, 
Philip the Fair, even more than Henry VIII, is the 
incarnation of the economic spirit in its conflict with 
the Church ; and he makes him an even more repul- 



Civilization and Decay ;^^2 

sive, though perhaps an abler, man than Henry. In 
this he is probably quite right. His account of the 
hounding down of Boniface, and the cruel destruc- 
tion of the Templars, is as stirring as it is truthful ; 
but he certainly pushes his theory to an altogether 
impossible extreme when he states that the moneyed 
class, the bourgeoisie, was already the dominant 
force in France. The heroes of Froissart still lay 
in the future ; and for centuries to come the burgher 
was to be outweighed by king, priest, and noble. 
The economic man, the man of trade and money, 
was, at that time, in no sense dominant. 

That there is grave reason for some of Mr, 
Adams's melancholy forebodings, no serious stu- 
dent of the times, no sociologist or reformer, and 
no practical politician who is interested in more 
than momentary success, will deny. A foolish op- 
timist is only less noxious than an utter pessimist; 
and the prerequisite for any effort, whether hopeful 
or hopeless, to better our conditions is an accurate 
knowledge of what these conditions are. There is 
no use in blinding ourselves to certain of the ten- 
dencies and results of our high-pressure civilization. 
Some very ominous facts have become more and 
more apparent during the present century, in which 
the social movement of the white race has gone 
on with such unexampled and ever-accelerating 
rapidity. The rich have undoubtedly grown richer ; 
and, while the most careful students are inclined to 
answer with an emphatic negative the proposition 
that the poor have grown poorer, it is nevertheless 



354 Civilization and Decay 

certain that there has been a large absolute, though 
not relative increase of poverty, and that the very 
poor tend to huddle in immense masses in the cities. 
Even though these masses are, relatively to the rest 
of the population, smaller than they formerly were, 
they constitute a standing menace, not merely to 
our prosperity, but to our existence. The improve- 
ment in the means of communication, moreover, 
has so far immensely increased the tendency of the 
urban population to grow at the expense of the ru- 
ral; and philosophers have usually been inclined to 
regard the ultimate safety of a nation as resting 
upon its peasantry. The improvement in machinery, 
the very perfection of scientific processes, cause 
great, even though temporary, suffering to unskilled 
laborers. Moreover, there is a certain softness of 
fibre in civilized nations which, if it were to prove 
progressive, might mean the development of a cul- 
tured and refined people quite unable to hold its 
own in those conflicts through which alone any 
great race can ultimately march to victory. There 
is also a tendency to become fixed, and to lose flexi- 
bility. Most ominous of all, there has become evi- 
dent, during the last two generations, a very pro- 
nounced tendency among the most highly civilized 
races, and among the most highly civilized portions 
of all races, to lose the power of multiplying and 
even to decrease; so much so as to make the fears 
of the disciples of Malthus a centuiy ago seem 
rather absurd to the dweller in France or New 
England to-day. 



Civilization and Decay 35$ 

Mr. Adams does not believe that any individual 
or group of individuals can influence the destiny 
of a race for good or for evil. All of us admit 
that it is very hard by individual effort thus to make 
any alteration in destiny ; but we do not think it im- 
possible; and Mr. Adams will have performed a 
great service if he succeeds in fixing the eyes of the 
men who ought to know thoroughly the problems 
set us to solve, upon the essential features of these 
problems. I do not think his diagnosis of the dis- 
ease is in all respects accurate. I believe there is 
an immense amount of healthy tissue as to the ex- 
istence of which he is blind ; but there is disease, and 
it is serious enough to warrant very careful exam- 
ination. 

However, Mr. Adams is certainly in error in 
putting the immense importance he does upon the 
question of the expansion or contraction of the cur- 
rency. There is no doubt whatever that a nation 
is profoundly affected by the character of its cur- 
rency ; but there seems to be equally little doubt that 
the currency is only one, and by no means the most 
important, among a hundred causes which profound- 
ly affect it. The United States has been on a gold 
basis, and on a silver basis; it has been on a paper 
basis, and on a basis of what might be called the 
scraps and odds and ends of the currencies of a dozen 
other nations; but it has kept on developing along 
the same lines no matter what its currency has been. 
If a change of currency were so enacted as to 
amount to dishonesty, that is, to the repudiation of 



3S^ Civilization and Decay 

debts, it would be a very bad thing morally; or, if 
a change took place in a manner that would tem- 
porarily reduce the purchasing power of the wage- 
earner, it would be a very bad thing materially ; but 
the current of the national life would not be wholly 
diverted or arrested, it would merely be checked, 
even by such a radical change. The forces that most 
profoundly shape the course of a nation's life lie far 
deeper than the mere use of gold or of silver, the 
mere question of the appreciation or depreciation of 
one metal when compared with the other, or when 
compared with commodities generally. 

Mr. Adams unconsciously shows this in his first 
and extremely interesting chapter on the Romans. 
In one part of this chapter he seems to ascribe the 
ruin of the Roman Empire to the contraction of the 
currency, saying, "with contraction came that fall of 
prices which first ruined, then enslaved, and finally 
exterminated the native rural population of Italy." 
This he attributes to the growth of the economic or 
capitalistic spirit. As he puts it, "the stronger type 
exterminated the weaker, the money-lender killed 
out the husbandman, the soldiers vanished, and the 
farms on which they once flourished were left deso- 
late." 

But, curiously enough, Mr. Adams himself shows 
that all this really occurred during the two centuries, 
or thereabout, extending from the end of the sec- 
ond Punic war through the reign of the first of the 
Roman emperors ; and this was a period of currency 
expansion, not of currency contraction. Moreover, 



Civilization and Decay 357 

it was emphatically a period when the military and 
not the economic type was supreme. The great 
Romans of the first and second centuries before 
Christ were soldiers, not merchants or usurers, and 
they could only be said to possess the economic in- 
stinct incidentally, in so far as it is possessed by every 
man of the military type who seizes the goods ac- 
cumulated by the man of the economic type. It was 
during these centuries, when the military type was 
supreme, and when prices were rising, that the ruin, 
the enslavement, and the extermination of the old 
rural population of Italy began. It was during 
these centuries that the husbandmen left the soil and 
became the mob of Rome, clamoring for free bread 
and the games of the amphitheatre. It was toward 
the close of this period that the Roman army be- 
came an army no longer of Roman citizens, but of 
barbarians trained in the Roman manner; it was 
toward the close of this period that celibacy became 
so crying an evil as to invoke the vain action of the 
legislature, and that the Roman race lost the power 
of self -perpetuation. What happened in the suc- 
ceeding centuries, — the period of the contraction of 
the currency and the rise of prices, — was merely the 
completion of the ruin which had already been prac- 
tically accomplished. 

These facts seem to show clearly that the question 
of the currency had really little or nothing to do with 
the decay of the Roman fibre. This decay began 
under one set of currency conditions, and continued 
unchanged when these conditions became precisely 



35^ Civilization and Decay 

reversed. An infinitely more important cause, as 
Mr. Adams himself shows, was the immense dam- 
age done to the Italian husbandman by the importa- 
tion of Asiatic and African slaves ; which was in all 
probability the chief of the causes that conspired 
to ruin him. He was forced into competition with 
races of lower vitality; races tenacious of life, who 
possessed a very low standard of living, and who 
furnished to the great slave-owner his cheap labor. 
Mr. Adams shows that the husbandman was affected, 
not only by the importation of vast droves of slaves 
to compete with him in Italy, but by the competition 
with low-class labor in Egypt and elsewhere. These 
very points, if developed with Mr. Adams's skill, 
would have enabled him to show in a very striking 
manner the radical contrast between the present po- 
litical and social life of civilized States, and the polit- 
ical and social life of Rome during what he calls the 
capitalistic or closing period. At present, the min- 
ute that the democracy becomes convinced that the 
workman and the peasant are suffering from compe- 
tition with cheap labor, whether this cheap labor 
take the form of alien immigration, or of the impor- 
tation of goods manufactured abroad by low-class 
workingmen, or of commodities produced by con- 
victs, it at once puts a stop to the competition. We 
keep out the Chinese, very wisely; we have put an 
end to the rivalry of convict contract labor with free 
labor; we are able to protect ourselves, whenever 
necessary, by heavy import duties, against the effect 
of too cheap labor in any foreign country ; and, final- 



Civilization and Decay SS9 

ly, in the Civil War, we utterly destroyed the system 
of slavery, which really was threatening the life of 
the free workingman in a way in which it can not 
possibly be threatened by any conceivable develop- 
ment of the "capitalistic" spirit. 

Mr. Adams possesses a very intimate knowledge 
of finance, and there are many of his discussions on 
this subject into which only an expert would be com- 
petent to enter. Nevertheless, on certain financial 
and economic questions, touching matters open to 
discussion by the man of merely ordinary knowl- 
edge, his terminology is decidedly vague. This is 
especially true when he speaks of "the producer." 
Now the producer, as portrayed by the Populist 
stump orator or writer of political and economic 
pamphlets, is a being with whom we became quite 
intimate during the recent campaign; but we have 
found it difficult to understand at all definitely who 
this "producer" actually is. According to one school 
of Populistic thinkers the farmer is the producer; 
but according to another and more radical school 
this is not so, unless the farmer works with his 
hands and not his head, this school limiting the ap- 
plication of the term "producer" to the working- 
man who does the immediate manual work of pro- 
duction. On the other hand, those who speak with 
scientific precision must necessarily class as producers 
all men whose work results directly or indirectly in 
production. Under this definition, inventors and 
men who improve the method of transportation, 
like railway presidents, and men who enable other 



360 Civilization and Decay 

producers to work, such as bankers who loan money 
wisely, are all themselves to be classed as producers, 
and often indeed as producers of the most effective 
kind. 

The great mass of the population consists of pro- 
ducers ; and in consequence the majority of the sales 
by producers are sales to other producers. It re- 
quires one set of producers to make a market for 
any other set of producers ; and in consequence the 
rise or fall of prices is a good or a bad thing for 
different bodies of producers according to the differ- 
ent circumstances of each case. Mr. Adams says 
that the period from the middle of the twelfth to 
the middle of the thirteenth centuries was an inter- 
val of "almost unparalleled prosperity," which he 
apparently ascribes to the expansion of the currency, 
with which, he says, "went a rise in prices, all pro- 
ducers grew rich, and for more than two genera- 
tions the strain of competition was so relaxed that 
the different classes of the population preyed upon 
each other less savagely than they are wont to do in 
less happy times." It is not exactly clear how a 
rise in the prices both of what one producer sells 
another, and of what he in return buys from that 
other, can somehow make both of them rich, and re- 
lax the strain of competition. Certainly in the pres- 
ent century, competition has been just as severe in 
times of high prices, and some of the periods of 
greatest prosperity have coincided with the periods 
of very low prices. There is reason to believe that 
low prices are ultimately of great benefit to the wage- 



Civilization and Decay 361 

earners. A rise in prices generally injures them. 
Moreover, in the century of which Mr. Adams 
speaks, the real non-producers were the great terri- 
torial feudal lords and the kings and clergymen; 
and these were then supreme. It was the period of 
the ferocious Albigensian crusades. It is true that 
it ushered in a rather worse period, — that of the 
struggle between England and France, with its at- 
tendant peasant wars and Jacqueries, and huge bands 
of marauding free-companies. But the alteration 
for the worse was due to a fresh outbreak of "imag- 
inative" spirit; and the first period was full of re- 
curring plagues and famines, besides the ordinary 
unrest, murder, oppression, pillage, and general cor- 
ruption. Mr. Adams says that the different classes 
of the population during that happy time "preyed 
upon each other less savagely" than at other times. 
All that need be said in answer is that there is not 
now a civilized community, under no matter what 
stress of capitalistic competition, in which the differ- 
ent classes prey upon one another with one-tenth the 
savagery they then showed ; or in which famine and 
disease, even leaving war out of account, come any- 
where near causing so much misery to poor people, 
and above all to the wage-earners, or workingmen, 
the under strata and base of the producing classes. 

From many of the statements in Mr. Adams's 
very interesting concluding chapter I should equally 
differ; and yet this chapter is one which is not merely 
interesting but soul-stirring, and it contains much 

with which most of us would heartily agree. 
16 Vol. I. 



362 Civilization and Decay 

Through the cold impartiality with which he strives 
to work merely as a recorder of facts, there break 
now and then flashes of pent-up wrath and vehement 
scorn for all that is mean and petty in a purely ma- 
terialistic, purely capitalistic, civilization. With his 
scorn of what is ignoble and base in our develop- 
ment, his impatient contempt of the deification of 
the stock-market, the trading-counter, and the fac- 
tory, all generous souls must agree. When we see 
prominent men deprecating the assertion of national 
honor because it "has a bad effect upon business," 
or because it "impairs the value of securities" ; when 
we see men seriously accepting Mr, Edward Atkin- 
son's pleasant theory that patriotism is of no conse- 
quence when compared with the price of cotton 
sheeting or the capacity to undersell our competi- 
tors in foreign markets, it is no wonder that a man 
who has in him the stuff of ancestors who helped 
to found our Government, and helped to bring it 
safely through the Civil War, should think blackly 
of the future. But Mr. Adams should remember 
that there always have been men of this merely 
huckstering type, or of other types not much higher. 
It is not a nice thing that Mr. Eliot, the president 
of one of the greatest educational institutions of the 
land, should reflect discredit upon the educated men 
of the country by his attitude on the Venezuela af- 
fair, carrying his desertion of American principles 
so far as to find himself left in the lurch by the veiy 
English statesmen whose cause he was champion- 
ing; but Mr. Adams by turning to the "History" of 



Civilization and Decay 363 

the Administration of Madison, by his brother, 
Henry Adams, would find that Mr. EHot had plenty 
of intellectual ancestors among the "blue lights" 
Federalists of that day. Timothy Pickering showed 
the same eager desire to stand by another country 
to the hurt of his own country's honor, and Timothy 
Pickering was a United States Senator whose con- 
duct was far more resprehensible than that of any 
private individual could be. We have advanced, not 
retrograded, since 1812. 

This applies also to what Mr. Adams says of the 
fall of the soldier and the rise of the usurer. He 
quite overstates his case in asserting that in Europe 
the soldier has lost his importance since 1871, and 
that the administration of society since then has 
fallen into the hands of the "economic man," there- 
by making a change "more radical than any that 
happened at Rome or even at Byzantium." In the 
first place, a period of a quarter of a century is al- 
together too short to admit of such a generalization. 
In the next place, the facts do not support this par- 
ticular generalization. The Germans are quite as 
military in type as ever they were, and very much 
more so than they were at any period during the two 
centuries preceding Bismarck and Moltke. Nor is 
it true to say that "the ruler of the French [people 
has passed for the first time from the martial to the 
moneyed type." Louis XV and Louis Philippe can 
hardly be held to belong to any recognized martial 
type; and the reason of the comparative sinking of 
the military man in France is due not in the least to 



364 Civilization and Decay 

the rise of his economic fellow-countryman, but to 
the rise of the other military man in Germany. Mr. 
Adams says that since the capitulation of Paris the 
soldier has tended to sink more and more, until he 
merely receives his orders from financiers (which 
term when used by Mr. Adams includes all business 
and workingmen) with his salary, without being al- 
lowed a voice, even in the questions which involve 
peace and war. Now this is precisely the position 
which the soldier has occupied for two centuries 
among English-speaking races ; and it is during these 
very centuries that the English-speaking race has 
produced its greatest soldiers. Marlborough and 
Wellington, Nelson and Farragut, Grant and Lee, 
exactly fill Mr. Adams's definition of the position 
into which soldiers have "sunk"; and the United 
States has just elected as President, as it so fre- 
quently has done before, a man who owes his place 
in politics in large part to his having done gallant 
service as a soldier, and who is in no sense a repre- 
sentative of the moneyed type. 

Again, Mr. Adams gloomily remarks that "pro- 
ducers have become the subjects of the possessors 
of hoarded wealth," and that among capitalists the 
money-lenders form an aristocracy, while debtors 
are helpless and the servants of the creditors. All 
this is really quite unworthy of Mr. Adams, or of 
any one above the intellectual level of Mr. Bryan, 
Mr. Henry George, or Mr. Bellamy. Any man who 
has had the slightest practical knowledge of legisla- 
tion, whether as Congressman or as State legislator, 



Civilization and Decay ^6^ 

knows that nowadays laws are passed much more 
often with a view to benefiting the debtors than the 
creditors ; always excepting that very large portion 
of the creditor class which includes the wage-earners. 
"Producers" — whoever they may be — are not the 
subjects of "hoarded wealth," nor of any one nor 
anything else. Capital is not absolute; and it is 
idle to compare the position of the capitalist nowa- 
days with his position when his workmen were 
slaves and the law-makers were his creatures. The 
money-lender, by whom I suppose Mr. Adams means 
the banker, is not an aristocrat as compared to other 
capitalists,— at any rate in the United States. The 
merchant, the manufacturer, the railroad man, stand 
just as the banker does; and bankers vary among 
themselves just as any other business men do. They 
do not form a "class" at all ; any one who wishes to 
can go into the business ; men fail and succeed in it 
just as in other businesses. As for the debtors being 
powerless, if Mr. Adams knows any persons who 
have lent money in Kansas or similar States they 
will speedily enlighten him on this subject, and will 
give him an exact idea of the extent to which the 
debtor is the servant of the creditor. In those States 
the creditor— and esi>ecially the Eastern money- 
lender or "gold-bug"— is the man who has lost all 
his money. Mr. Adams can readily find this out by 
the simple endeavor to persuade some "money- 
lender," or other "Wall Street shark" to go into the 
business of lending money on Far- Western farm 
property. The money-lender in the most civilized 



366 Civilization and Decay 

portions of the United States always loses if the 
debtor is loser, or if the debtor is dishonest. Of 
course there are "sharpers" among bankers, as there 
are among producers. Moreover, the private, as dis- 
tinguished from the corporate, debtor borrows for 
comparatively short periods, so that he is practically 
not at all affected by an appreciating currency; the 
rise is much too small to count in the case of the 
individual, though it may count in the long-term 
bonds of a nation or corporation. The wage of the 
workingman rises, while interest, which is the wage 
of the capitalist, sinks. 

Mr. Adams's study of the rise of the usurer in 
India and the ruin of the martial races is very in- 
teresting; but it has not the slightest bearing upon 
anything which is now happening in Western civ- 
ilization. The debtor, in America at least, is amply 
able to take care of his own interests. Our experience 
shows conclusively that the creditors only prosper 
when the debtors prosper, and the danger lies less 
in the accumulation of debts, than in their repudia- 
tion. Among us the communities which repudiate 
their debts, which inveigh loudest against their cred- 
itors, and which offer the poorest field for the oper- 
ations of the honest banker (whom they likewise 
always call "money-lender"), are precisely those 
which are least prosperous and least self-respecting. 
There are, of course, individuals here and there who 
are unable to cope with the money-lender, and even 
-sections of the country where this is true; but this 
only means that a weak or thriftless man can be 



Civilization and Decay 367 

robbed by a sharp money-lender just as he can be 
robbed by the sharp producer from whom he buys 
or to whom he sells. There is, in certan points, a 
very evident incompatibility of interest between the 
farmer who wishes to sell his product at a high rate, 
and the workingman who wishes to buy that product 
at a low rate ; but the success of the capitalist, and es- 
pecially of the banker, is conditioned upon the pros- 
perity of both workingman and farmer. 

When Mr. Adams speaks of the change in the 
relations of women and men he touches on the 
vital weakness of our present civilization. If we 
are, in truth, tending toward a point where the race 
will cease to be able to perpetuate itself, our civili- 
sation is of course a failure. No quality in a race 
atones for the failure to produce an abundance of 
healthy children. The problem upon which Mr. 
Adams here touches is the most serious of all prob- 
lems, for it lies at the root of, and indeed itself is, 
national life. But it is hard to accept seriously Mr. 
Adams's plea that "martial" men loved their wives 
more than "economic" men do, and showed their 
love by buying them. Of course the only reason 
why a woman was bought in early times was be- 
cause she was looked upon like any other chattel; 
she was "loved" more than she is now only as a 
negro was "loved" more by the negro-trader in 
i860 than at present. The worship of women dur- 
ing the Middle Ages was, in its practical effects, 
worship of a very queer kind. The "economic man" 
of the present day is beyond comparison gentler and 



/ 



368 Civilization and Decay 

more tender and more loving to women than the 
"emotional man" of the Middle Ages. 

Mr. Adams closes with some really fine para- 
graphs, of which the general purport is, that the 
advent of the capitalist and the economic man, and 
especially the advent of the usurer, marks a condi- 
tion of consolidation which means the beginning of 
utter decay, so that our society, as a result of this 
accelerated movement away from emotionalism and 
toward capitalism, is now in a condition like that 
of the society of the later Roman Empire. He 
forgets, however, that there are plenty of modern 
States which have entirely escaped the general ac- 
celerated movement of our time. Spain on the one 
hand, and Russia on the other, though alike in noth- 
ing else, are alike in being entirely outside the cur- 
rent of modern capitalistic development. Spain 
never suffered from capitalists. She exterminated 
the economic man in the interest of the emotional 
and martial man. As a result she has sunk to a con- 
dition just above that of Morocco — another State, 
by the way, which still clings to the martial and 
emotional type, and is entirely free from the vices 
of capitalistic development, and from the presence of 
the usurer, save as the usurer existed in the days of 
Isaac of York. Soldiers and artists have sunk lower 
in Spain than elsewhere, although they have had no 
competition from the economic man. Russia is in 
an entirely different position. Russia is eminently 
emotional, and her capitalists are of the most ar- 
chaic type; but it is difficult to say exactly what 



Civilization and Decay 369 

Russia has done for art, or in what respect her 
soldiers are superior to other soldiers ; and certainly 
the life of the lower classes in Russia is on the 
average far less happy than the life of the working- 
man and farmer in any English-speaking country. 
Evidently, as Spain and Russia show, national de- 
cay, or non-development, may have little to do with 
economic progress. 

Mr. Adams has shown w^ell that the progress 
of civilization and centralizaton has depended 
largely upon the growing mastery of the attack over 
the defence ; but when he says that the martial type 
necessarily decays as civilization progresses, he goes 
beyond what he can prove. The economic man in 
England, Holland, and the United States has for 
several centuries proved a much better fighter than 
the martial emotionalist of the Spanish countries. 
It is Spain which is now decaying; not the nations 
with capitalists. The causes which make Russia 
formidable are connected with the extent of her 
territory and her population, for she has certainly 
failed so far to produce fighting men at all superior 
to the fighting men of the economic civilizations. In 
a pent-up territory she would rise less rapidly, and 
fall more rapidly, than they would ; and her freedom 
from centralization and capitalization would not 
help her. Spain, which is wholly untouched by 
modern economic growth, suffers far more than any 
English-speaking country from maladies like those 
of Rome in its decadence ; and Rome did not decay 
from the same causes which affect modern America 



37^ Civilization and Decay 

or Europe; while Russia owes her immunity from 
a few of the evils that affect the rest of us, to 
causes unconnected with her backwardness in civili- 
zation, and moreover has worse evils of her own to 
contend with. The English-speaking man has so 
far out-built, out-fought, and out-administered the 
Russian; and he is as far as the poles away from 
the Roman of the later Empire. 

Moreover, instead of the mercenary or paid police 
growing in relative strength, as Mr. Adams says, 
it has everywhere shrunk during the last fifty years, 
when compared with the mass of armed farmers and 
wage-earners who make up a modern army. The 
capitalist can no longer, as in ages past, count upon 
the soldiers as being of his party ; he can only count 
upon them when they are convinced that in fighting 
his battle they are fighting their own; although 
under modern industrial conditions this is generally 
the case. Again, Mr. Adams is in error in his facts, 
when he thinks that producers have prospered in 
the silver-using, as compared with the gold-using, 
countries. The wage-earner and small farmer of the 
United States, or even of Europe, stand waist high 
above their brothers in Mexico and the other com- 
munities that use only silver. The prosperity of the 
wage-earning class is more important to the State 
than the prosperity of any other class in the com- 
munity, for it numbers within its ranks two-thirds 
of the people of the community. The fact that mod- 
ern society rests upon the wage-earner, whereas an- 
cient society rested upon the slave, is of such tran- 



Civilization and Decay 371 

scendent importance as to forbid any exact compari- 
son between the two, save by way of contrast. 

While there is in modern times a decrease in emo- 
tional religion, there is an immense increase in practi- 
cal morality. There is a decrease of the martial type 
found among savages and the people of the Middle 
Ages, except as it still survives in the slums of great 
cities; but there remains a martial type infinitely more 
efficient than any that preceded it. There are great 
branches of industry which call forth in those that 
follow them more hardihood, manliness, and cour- 
age than any industry of ancient times. The im- 
mense masses of men connected with the railroads 
are continually called upon to exercise qualities of 
mind and body such as in antiquity no trade and no 
handicraft demanded. There are, it is true, in- 
fluences at work to shake the vitality, courage, and 
manliness of the race ; but there are other influences 
which tell in exactly the opposite direction, and, 
whatever may come in the future, hitherto the last 
set of influences have been strongest. As yet, while 
men are more gentle and more honest than before, it 
can not be said that they are less brave ; and they are 
certainly more efficient as fighters. If our popula- 
tion decreases; if we lose the virile, manly qualities, 
and sink into a nation of mere hucksters, putting 
gain over national honor, and subordinating every- 
thing to mere ease of life; then we shall indeed reach 
a condition worse than that of the ancient civiliza- 
tions in the years of their decay. But at present no 
comparison could be less apt than that of Byzantium, 



37^ Civilization and Decay 

or Rome in its later years, with a great modern State 
where the thronging milHons who make up the bulk 
of the population are wage-earners, who themselves 
decide their own destinies ; a State which is able in 
time of need to put into the field armies, composed 
exclusively of its own citizens, more numerous than 
any which the world has ever before seen, and with 
a record of fighting in the immediate past with which 
there is nothing in the annals of antiquity to com- 
pare. 



END OF VOLUME ONE 



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